OSCE/FCS: ITALY WILL NOT BLOCK PROGRESS AHEAD OF

UNCLAS ROME 003797 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT. FOR EUR/RPM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: BE IT PARM PREL OSCE SUBJECT: OSCE/FCS: ITALY WILL NOT BLOCK PROGRESS AHEAD OF MINISTERIAL REF: STATE 201320 ¶1. (SBU) On November 16 Polmiloff received a response to Reftel demarche from Brunella Borzi, the MFA's office director for OSCE affairs. Borzi apologized for the delayed response saying she has been out of the country and wanted to first confer with the Italian delegation in Vienna before reacting. She was unaware that there were lingering objections to the Italian proposal noted in Reftel. The bottom line, said Borzi, is that Italy will not be an impediment to maintaining the current non-proliferation regimes, and Italy has no intention of modifying the 1994 Governing Principles. Italy will withdraw its proposal if this facilitates progress ahead of the Ljubljana ministerial. ¶2. (SBU) According to Borzi, Italy believes evaluating a potential OSCE role in non-proliferation is a long-term process that requires consensus and Italy will only reexamine the issue if it senses the time is right. Italy was simply acknowledging UNSCR 1540 and took the initiative to examine ways that the OSCE could play into that resolution. She noted that there is another proposal gathering momentum sponsored by Belgium that could be concluded prior to the ministerial. She acknowledged, when pressed, that she has only heard about the proposal and could not recall the specifics. SPOGLI