IRELAND SUPPORTS REPORTING IRAN TO THE UNSC

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 000054 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015 TAGS: KNNP PARM PREL IR EU AORC EI SUBJECT: IRELAND SUPPORTS REPORTING IRAN TO THE UNSC REF: STATE 6236 Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Mary E. Daly; Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (C) Ireland fully supports the EU-3's intention to request that the IAEA Board of Governors report Iran's nuclear safeguard violations to the UNSC, said Therese Healy, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) First Secretary for Disarmament and Nonproliferation, to whom Post delivered reftel demarche on January 17. Healy noted the GOI's concern that Iran had unilaterally closed off negotiating options with the resumption of uranium enrichment R&D activities, and she conveyed the GOI's belief that these activities reflected the Iranian Government's desire to produce nuclear weapons. She expected that the EU-3 would consult on its draft IAEA resolution with EU Member States in Vienna prior to the February 2-3 meetings of the IAEA Board. She also expressed optimism that the resolution would receive the simple majority necessary among IAEA Board members for Iran's referral to the UNSC. Ireland anticipated that Russia and China would pose obstacles once the issue was with the UNSC, a view voiced by several participants in the January 16 London meetings of the Perm-5 countries plus Germany. This challenge, said Healy, would oblige the USG and EU-3 to define sharply the steps envisioned in the "graduated UNSC approach" cited in reftel points. ¶2. (C) According to Healy, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern has taken a special interest in Iran's nuclear safeguards violations. She cited a January 10 press release by FM Ahern urging the Iranian Government to reconsider its actions and abandon further uranium enrichment research and development. (found at http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/Press Releases/20060110/1956.htm) FM Ahern also conveyed Ireland's strong views during a bilateral meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister on the margins of the NPT Review Conference in May 2005. Healy said that she would share with Post FM Ahern's prepared Qs-and-As on Iran for a January 25 Irish Parliamentary session (which we will forward to EUR/UBI). ¶3. (C) Healy also noted that the DFA had not been in touch with the Iranian Embassy in Dublin since a December demarche denouncing President Ahmadinejad's remarks about Israel. Communication with Iran's Embassy, she pointed out, has been complicated since Iranian Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mirfakhar was recalled to Tehran in the autumn and charged with financial crimes allegedly involving a network of Iranian diplomats. Healy expressed the GOI's suspicion that the recall may have been politically motivated, based on the perception that Ambassador Mirfakhar was out of step with the more hard-line Ahmadinejad Government. KENNY