DEMARCHES ON NAM AND OIC STATEMENTS ABOUT IRAN'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000652 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2016 TAGS: PREL AORC KNNP UNSC IV IR SUBJECT: DEMARCHES ON NAM AND OIC STATEMENTS ABOUT IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM REF: A. STATE 89324 ¶B. STATE 96389 Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (C) POL/ECON Counselor and Deputy POL/ECON Counselor delivered a demarche June 16 to Ambassador Bernard Tanoh Boutchoue, Director for the United Nations and Specialized Agencies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressing U.S. disappointment with the statement on Iran's nuclear program that emerged from the May 27-30 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Malaysia (ref A) and to urge that the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) issue a clear message at the June 19-21 OIC meeting in Baku, encouraging Iran to accept the incentives package conveyed by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on behalf of the U.S., and our European partners, as well as Russia and China, and immediately suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities (ref B). ¶2. (C) Ambassador Boutchoue underscored that Cote d'Ivoire, as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), considers the Iran nuclear issue to be purely a matter of international rule of law. Unfortunately, some of the larger Asian and Latin American countries at the May NAM meeting wrongly viewed this issue through the prism of what they perceive as a geopolitical struggle by the North to dominate the South, and insisted on pushing through a statement defending Iran's nuclear rights and ignoring the dangerous threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to the international nonproliferation regime. Ambassador Boutchoue acknowledged that many OIC members similarly view the Iran nuclear issue through the prism of what they perceive as a geopolitical struggle by the West to dominate the Muslim world. However, he expressed the hope that now that the U.S., EU, Russia and China have adopted a common position, moderate OIC members like Cote d'Ivoire will have a better chance of keeping the OIC's focus where it belongs, on the need for Iran to meet its international obligations and abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. He promised to pass a message to Foreign Minister Bakayoko, who is currently in Chad en route to Baku, highlighting U.S. interest in seeing a strong statement of OIC support for the U.S./EU/Russia/China common position on Iran's nuclear program. Hooks