IRAN/IAEA: FRANCE WILL RAISE IRAN AT THE FEB 28

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 001233

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2015
TAGS: IR KNNP PARM PREL TRGY MNUC IAEA
SUBJECT: IRAN/IAEA: FRANCE WILL RAISE IRAN AT THE FEB 28
IAEA BOG MEETING, BUT REQUESTS AMENDMENT TO U.S. STATEMENT

REF: STATE 31323

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso
ns 1.4 (b) and (d).

We delivered reftel points to the MFA's office of Disarmament
and Nuclear Nonproliferation on February 23. On February 25
poloff spoke with Nicolas Roche, the desk officer for NP, who
said that France will make a national statement calling on
Iran to meet its obligations at the February 28 BOG meeting.
Roche said that the statement, which is currently being
prepared, is intended to highlight the like-mindedness of the
EU3 and put further pressure on Iran to meet its obligations
with regard to the negotiations. He said at this point he
did not know whether the statement is intended to be made on
behalf of France or the EU3, saying that it would be decided
in Vienna. While Roche admitted that he had not seen the
final text, he said that he expects the statement to put
forth strongly worded demands for Iran to comply with the
terms laid out through the course of the negotiations. He
said that the statement will call for Iran to implement Board
of Governors resolutions and respect its commitments for
suspension in addition to asking the agency to report every
failure of Iran immediately. Roche said that France expects
the U.S. national statement to be strongly worded and more
detailed than the French statement; however, he said language
calling for "full cessation and dismantling of Iran's fissile
material production efforts" will undermine the EU3
negotiations with Iran because they are the exact terms that
the EU3 is pushing for in negotiations. He asked that the
U.S. delete this verbiage from their national statement.
Wolff