SAG RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE: JUNE OIC BAKU

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 004775 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/14/2016 TAGS: PREL SA SUBJECT: SAG RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE: JUNE OIC BAKU MINISTERIAL MEETING REF: SECSTATE 96389 Classified By: A/DCM David Rundell under 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) A/PolCouns delivered reftel demarche to Abdulrahman Al-Rassi, MFA Office Director for International Organizations. Al-Rassi will be the SAG representative at the OIC conference and was keenly interested in the US position reflected in the reftel demarche. In particular, he appreciated the timely nature of the message as he was departing for the meeting shortly and would take the points along. On the issue of reaching a common OIC position on Iran, al-Rassi noted that the OIC had already consulted on modifying the OIC Mecca Summit's declared position on Iran issued in December of 2005, which generally supported Iran's position. Al-Rassi said we would be seeing "a lot of change to this position." While al-Rassi did not provide any detailed readout of what amendments to the OIC position on Iran were contemplated, his stated agreement to take reftel points into account and comments about discussions already underway on the Iran issue are a positive sign. OBERWETTER