GREEK ACTION ON BELARUS UN RESOLUTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 003002 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL BO GR SUBJECT: GREEK ACTION ON BELARUS UN RESOLUTIONS REF: A. SECSTATE 187018 ¶B. SECSTATE 184178 ¶C. SECSTATE 182267 Classified By: DEPUTY POLCOUNS PAUL CARTER. REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On November 15, Dep Polcouns delivered ref a demarche to Ambassador Aleksandros Rallis and Vassilios Moutsoglou of the MFA D1 Directorate for the UN, International Organizations and Conferences, and Disarmament then called later for a studied response. They said they had forwarded the U.S. position to the Greek mission in NY, to Minister Bakoyannis' office, and to the various other MFA offices concerned with Belarus matters. While they were unable to provide a definitive answer on how Greece would vote, since it intended to follow the agreed EU position, Moutsoglou said unofficially that they found the U.S. arguments persuasive and that he believed Greece would vote as we had requested. COUNTRYMAN