Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05PRAGUE376
2005-03-15 14:38:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Prague
Cable title:  

CZECHS ON GAERC, CHINA ARMS EMBARGO, HIZBALLAH AND

Tags:  PREL ETTC PTER HR CH LE KPAL SU RS GG EZ IR EUN 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000376 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015
TAGS: PREL ETTC PTER HR CH LE KPAL SU RS GG EZ IR EUN
SUBJECT: CZECHS ON GAERC, CHINA ARMS EMBARGO, HIZBALLAH AND
SYRIAN FM VISIT

REF: A. STATE 39909

B. STATE 44309

C. STATE 44087

D. STATE 44486

E. STATE 44347

Classified By: Political Officer Kimberly C. Krhounek for reasons 1.4(b
) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000376

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015
TAGS: PREL ETTC PTER HR CH LE KPAL SU RS GG EZ IR EUN
SUBJECT: CZECHS ON GAERC, CHINA ARMS EMBARGO, HIZBALLAH AND
SYRIAN FM VISIT

REF: A. STATE 39909

B. STATE 44309

C. STATE 44087

D. STATE 44486

E. STATE 44347

Classified By: Political Officer Kimberly C. Krhounek for reasons 1.4(b
) and (d).


1. (C) Summary. On March 14, we met with Mr. Michal
Strouhal, Director of the Common Foreign and Security Policy
Department in the Czech MFA, to discuss the GAERC (ref a),
China Arms Embargo (ref b),and visit of Syrian FM to Europe
(ref c). We also delivered the statement on U.S. support of
the EU-3 diplomacy in Iran (ref d) and the non-paper on
Hizballah (ref e). On the China Arms Embargo, Strouhal noted
that this issue is not on the GAERC agenda, but that the EU
would expect some progress on human rights from China before
making a decision to lift the embargo. The EU is still a
long way from reaching a consensus decision to designate both
the military and political wings of Hizballah as terrorist
organizations; roughly eight EU Member Countries still
maintain objections at the technical level, although the
Czechs and Dutch have expressed support at the ministerial
level. Strouhal agreed that the April timing of the Syrian
FM's planned visit to Italy was "not appropriate" and
expected the recent developments in Lebanon to be the main
focus of the GAERC's Middle East discussions. The USG
decision to support the EU-3 on Iran was warmly welcomed as
an important "follow-up to President Bush's trip to Europe."
Septel will discuss Ambassador's March 15 meeting with the
Foreign Minister, with additional input on these topics. End
Summary.

--------------
GAERC MEETING, CHINA ARMS AND HIZBALLAH
--------------


2. (U) Strouhal provided the following responses to the
issues to be discussed in the upcoming GAERC meeting in
Brussels:


A. (C) CHINA ARMS EMBARGO: Strouhal noted that the issue of
lifting the EU's embargo on arms sales to China is not on the

agenda of the March GAERC. He added that Chinese Deputy
Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had recently appealed to the
Czechs to encourage the EU to lift the arms embargo during an
official visit to Prague on March 10. But the issue of human
rights was not forgotten, as Yesui's visit coincided with a
demonstration against Chinese occuption of Tibet which
occurred on the same day outside of the MFA. Strouhal said
that the Chinese DFM made a well-reasoned argument for
lifting the arms embargo, but that he believed that the EU
would need to see some signs of progress on human rights from
China before it would make a final decision to lift the
embargo, since "they should not get something for nothing."


B. (C) CROATIA: Strouhal said the Czechs are in the middle
of the two EU camps concerning Croatia's Accession; the GOCR
is strongly supportive of Croatia's Accession, but it is also
a strong supporter of the ICTY and wants to see Gotovina
delivered to The Hague. Strouhal stated that the COREPER
discussion last week showed EU firmness on this issue and he
did not believe that the EU would agree to open negotiations
until there is "full compliance" by Croatia with the ICTY.
He added that there would not be a GAERC conclusion on this
issue, but there would likely be a declaration reiterating
the EU position towards Croatia.


C. (C) UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Strouhal affirmed
that Belarus and Cuba are among the priorities for the GOCR
at the UNCHR (along with Burma, Sudan, Palestinian Authority
and Israel). The Czechs plan to take the floor in support of
the Cuba resolution debate and will assist the USG in
lobbying other countries to join them. Strouhal said that
there is still no EU consensus on Chechnya, Sudan or
Uzbekistan.


D. (C) MIDDLE EAST PEACE: Strouhal said the GAERC
discussions on the Middle East this month would be largely
focused on the current situation in Lebanon. The Czechs
believe that it is very important for Lebanon to "gain its
sovereignty" and realize a full withdrawal of Syrian
soldiers. Also, during Solana's regular visits to the region
he has been actively working with Egypt on the Gaza
withdrawal and encouraging their role in the MEPP process.
The first reports required under the action plans of the "EU
Neighborhood Policy" for Egypt, Lebanon and three Caucausus
states were recently published and should be on the GAERC
agenda for April.


E. (C) HIZBALLAH: Strouhal said that at the February EU
GAERC, the Czech DFM in attendance spoke in favor of putting
the designation of Hizballah as a terrorist organization on
the next agenda, and he was strongly supported by the
Netherlands. This demonstrated that there is support for
this issue at the ministerial level, but at the EU
clearinghouse, which is a technical level group, several
countries strongly oppose the designation, while an
additional 5 remain more passively opposed. Because of this,
the EU is still a long way from reaching a consensus
agreement on Hizballah; however, he added that written
information on the organization is helpful to the discussion
and thanked us for delivery of the non-paper (ref e).


F. (C) SUDAN: Strouhal said the Czech Republic strongly
agreed that Sudan must "fully and unconditionally" implement
the peace agreements and reaffirmed the Czech plans (noted
previously in paragraph C),that the GOCR supports a
country-specific human rights resolution on Sudan at the
UNCHR. As for trying Sudanese human rights violators, he
noted that the Czech Republic has signed, but not ratified,
the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court,
which makes its position somewhat awkward within the EU,
since it also does not yet legally recognize the ICC.


G. (C) RUSSIA: Strouhal said that the main focus of EU
efforts towards Russia are the four "spheres of cooperation"
on which they are trying to reach agreement prior to the next
EU-Russia summit. Thus far, only the agreement on cultural
cooperation has been completed, and troubles remain in the
remaining three which concern internal, external and security
issues. The EU wants to implement these four agreements as a
package, whereas the Russians want to implement them as they
are negotiated and completed. Right now, one of the areas of
biggest friction is the link between "frozen conflicts"
within the EU's new neighborhood policy. On the issue of the
border monitoring mission, Strouhal said that the EU was
prepared to help with training of guards and other
assistance, but that only a few EU member states support the
idea of taking over the OSCE border monitoring mission and
turning it into a ESDP action. For now, the EU focus is on
keeping the existing OSCE border mission in place.

--------------
IRAN AND SYRIA
--------------


3. (C) Strouhal said that the EU member states were very
pleased with the U.S. decision to actively and publicly
support EU-3 diplomacy on discouraging Iran's nuclear
ambitions (ref d). It was, he said, "an important follow-up
to President Bush's trip to Europe." Strouhal was not aware
of the planned visit of Syrian FM Sha'ara's visit to Italy on
April 6, but he agreed that with the recent developments in
Lebanon, that the timing was not appropriate for such a trip.

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