FRENCH SUPPORT LISTING LTTE BUT WARY OF "TIMING"

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 006442

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/20/2014
TAGS: PGOV KTFN PREL PTER CO FR
SUBJECT: FRENCH SUPPORT LISTING LTTE BUT WARY OF "TIMING"

REF: STATE 172115

Classified By: POLITICAL MINISTER COUNSELOR JOSIAH ROSENBLATT, FOR REAS
ONS 1.4 B/D


1. (C) On September 20, we delivered reftel demarche
encouraging an EU listing of the LTTE as a terrorist
organization to Julien Deruffe, the MFA's senior desk officer
for counter-terrorism. Deruffe said the French inter-agency
process had concluded that LTTE met EU criteria for being
listed as a terrorist organization. Furthermore, he said
that the EU process for listing gained steam after the
assassination of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.
Nevertheless, the GOF wanted to respect current mediation
efforts, said Deruffe, and wanted to make sure that listing
LTTE would be a positive step and not one that might harm
these efforts. Therefore, it wanted to ensure that any EU
listing of LTTE made sense from a standpoint of timing.


2. (C) We also delivered reftel demarche to Regis Pelissier,
office director for International Finance Systems at the
Finance Ministry. Pelissier had no substantive comment.
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
STAPLETON