UPDATE ON EXTENDING THE MANDATE OF AUSTRIAN

UNCLAS VIENNA 002327 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR INL/PC, NEA/I, EUR/PGI AND EUR/AGS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PTER KCRM MARR SOCI SNAR AU SUBJECT: UPDATE ON EXTENDING THE MANDATE OF AUSTRIAN TRAINERS AT THE JORDAN INTERNATIONAL POLICE TRAINING CENTER REF: A. (A) VIENNA 1886 ¶B. (B) VIENNA 1439 ¶C. (C) STATE 72189 This cable is sensitive but unclassified. Please handle accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) EconPolCouns and Poloff met on July 11 with Brigadier Kurt Hager, the Austrian Interior Ministry's Director of Bilateral Affairs. We asked for an update on Hager's efforts to secure an extension of the mandate of Austria's police trainers at the Iraqi Police Academy in Amman through the end of 2006. Hager said there was broad agreement among relevant elements of the Austrian government to approve the extension. Now, Interior Minister Liese Prokop had to win Cabinet approval for the measure. This would likely come in the first Cabinet meeting after the summer break. Hager said he saw no reason this would not happen, barring a dramatic negative change of circumstances at the Academy. ¶2. (SBU) Hager said he had not won approval to recommend an enlargement of the Austrian police training team from the current number of four. Austria's other international police training commitments, including in Central Asia, precluded an expansion, he said. Brown