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