FRENCH PARTICIPATION AT THE SAUDI COUNTERTERRORISM

UNCLAS PARIS 000478 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PREL SA FR SUBJECT: FRENCH PARTICIPATION AT THE SAUDI COUNTERTERRORISM CONFERENCE REF: STATE 9866 (SBU) Following mid-January delivery of reftel demarche on participation at the February 5-8 Saudi counterterrorism conference, the MFA's office director-equivalent for terrorism and security issues, Claudia Delmas-Scherer, told us January 25 that the exact composition of the French delegation was still not finalized. Nevertheless, her office had heard that UCLAT head Gilles Leclair would probably lead the French delegation. UCLAT is the counterterrorism coordination cell within the Ministry of Interior. Other probable members of the delegation would be Philippe Meunier, the MFA's DAS-equivalent for terrorism and security, and other officials from the MFA and the DST, France's internal intelligence service. Delmas-Scherer said the French delegation planned on presenting two papers at the conference: the first would be a "lessons learned" paper and the second would focus on the repression of terrorist cells. Leach