SPAIN: OPPOSING ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 002834 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2016 TAGS: PREL UNGA IS SP SUBJECT: SPAIN: OPPOSING ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS REF: STATE 178061 Classified By: A/DCM Kathy Fitzpatrick for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) (C) Emboff delivered reftel demarche to Juan Manuel Gonzalez de Linares Palou, MFA Subdirector General for the United Nations, on November 2. Linares thanked Emboff and said he was very familiar with the subject matter as the Israeli Embassy had approached him with a similar demarche, providing a "thick" dossier on the matter. He said that all of these considerations would go into the overall UN reform process of considering which mandates to renew and that it would be a lengthy political process. However, he acknowledged that the anti-Israeli institutions are absolutely redundant, and he acknowledged that it was unfair to ask UN contributors such as ISRAEL and the U.S. to pay for unbalanced institutions solely designed to criticize them. Linares said that given the current Middle East climate, it seemed difficult to be too hopeful for much progress this year, but he said perhaps it would be possible to streamline these UN bodies into one. He declined to indicate how Spain would vote on the resolutions, and he did not mention an EU consensus position. -------------- Visit Embassy Madrid's Classified Website; http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/madrid/ -------------- AGUIRRE