UAE MFA READOUT ON VISIT OF IRAN ENVOY MOSTAFAWI:

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000910 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2016 TAGS: PREL IR AE PNUC GCC SUBJECT: UAE MFA READOUT ON VISIT OF IRAN ENVOY MOSTAFAWI: THE USUAL "B.S." REF: A. ABU DHABI 866 ¶B. DUBAI 347 Classified By: DCM Martin Quinn, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) MFA Under Secretary Abdullah Rashid Al Noaimi gave readout to DCM on March 6 visit of Iran Deputy FonMin Mostafawi to UAE. Al Noaimi characterized the visit as part of a P.R. campaign by Iran to reassure its Gulf neighbors that its nuclear program posed no safety or environmental hazard to the region. He said Mostafawi put great stress on the fact that Iran was using the latest (he said "German") technology and that there would be no nuclear accidents. At one point, Al Noaimi laughed and exclaimed that the pitch made by the Iranian envoy was just the usual "B.S." ¶2. (C) Asked how strongly the UAE had registered its point of view with regard to Iran's nuclear activities, Al Noaimi said they had expressed concern about the introduction of nuclear facilities in the Gulf region (as opposed to the Middle East). He commented that in his view the Iranians were determined to proceed and that nuclear ambitions had been a national aspiration from the time of the Shah. Al Noaimi noted that the Iranians (citing comments by Larijani) seemed "proud of having deceived the Europeans" in their effort to buy time to further their nuclear project. He said that none of their bilateral discussions touched on the UAE-Iran islands dispute or on the fate of the UAE fisherman held by Iran. ¶3. (C) In closing, Al Noaimi said that the UAE is always ready and willing to share with the U.S. its views and concerns about Iran and remarked that UAE anxiety is even greater than that of the U.S. since Iran is such a near neighbor. SISON