FINLAND: ORAL MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY ON IRAQ

S E C R E T HELSINKI 000677

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/I, EUR/ERA, AND EUR/NB

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2015
TAGS: PREL IZ SY FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND: ORAL MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY ON IRAQ

REF: STATE 114212

Classified By: POL Chief John Hall, for Reasons 1.4(B) and (D)

(S) For Finland, the recipient of the Secretary's oral
message is MFA Under Secretary for Political Affairs Markus
Lyra, who will head the GoF delegation to the International
Conference on Iraq. Lyra is out of the country today,
however, so we delivered the message to Aapo Polho, Director
General of MFA's Department for the Middle East and Africa,
and Leena Ritola, supervising desk officer for the Gulf
region. Polho and Ritola will accompany Lyra to Brussels.
Ritola (who transfers this summer to become political
counselor at the Finnish embassy in Washington),told us that
the Finnish delegation does not expect to have any contacts
with Syrian officials while in Brussels. If they do, the
Finns will stress the need for Syria to prevent the use of
its territory by supporters of the Iraq insurgency.
MACK