AUSTRIA PLANS POSITIVE STATEMENT ON IRAQ ELECTIONS

UNCLAS VIENNA 000262

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/AGS - VIKMANIS-KELLER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA PLANS POSITIVE STATEMENT ON IRAQ ELECTIONS

REF: A. (A) STATE 12610


B. (B) STATE 12757

C. (C) STATE 14649

This cable is Sensitive but Unclassified. Please treat
accordingly.


1. (SBU) At a January 28 meeting, Foreign Ministry Middle
East director (assistant secretary-equivalent) Ralph Scheide
told EconPolCouns that Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik would
issue a positive statement Monday, January 31 on the Iraq
elections. Scheide's draft (which the Foreign Minister had
not yet approved) congratulates the Iraqi people for their
historic achievement in holding elections, notes the need to
overcome anti-democratic violence, and discusses further
assistance to Iraq. Scheide said the EU planned to make its
own announcement along similar lines on Monday.


2. (SBU) The draft Austrian statement notes that Austria has
organized a special program to train ten Iraqi diplomats at
Austria's Diplomatic Academy. Scheide said the program
begins at the end of January and runs for two months.
Austria will cover all the costs of the course, which amount
to some 100,000 euros, and will not seek co-funding or
reimbursement (as it would normally do for foreign students).


3. (SBU) Scheide also told us that an Austrian will observe
absentee voting in Amman. The observer is an Interior
Ministry official at Austria's Embassy in Amman.


4. (SBU) Austrian firms have begun to engage in Iraq,
Scheide said. Austrian-Iraqi trade had expanded by 170
percent in the past year, albeit from a low baseline.
However, Austrian firms were not anxious for publicity at
this point, fearing that a higher profile would make them
targets of violence in Iraq.
Brown