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