NETHERLANDS/THIRD COMMITTEE: DUTCH INDICATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 002430 SIPDIS SIPDIS DUBAI FOR J. BURNS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2011 TAGS: PHUM PREL KTIA UN BO UZ NL SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS/THIRD COMMITTEE: DUTCH INDICATE GREATER SUPPORT FOR U.S. REF: A. THE HAGUE 2426 ¶B. BRUSSELS 3765 ¶C. STATE 183547 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Political Officer Ted Burkhalter; reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) Poloff spoke November 9 with Deputy Director General for Political Affairs Wim Geerts and Deputy European Correspondent (and Geerts assistant) Jeroen Boender about the Third Committee retaliatory resolutions tabled by Uzbekistan and Belarus. Poloff repeated the less-than-welcome message conveyed (ref A) by MFA Human Rights Divsion Head Pieter Raemer. Boender informed poloff several hours later that EU members in New York had reached an informal agreement (also see ref B),and that as a result the Dutch would vote against the openly anti-U.S. resolution and would probably abstain on the detention resolution. ¶2. (C) Boender informed poloff that, following the EU-Uzbek dialogue on November 8, EU members had decided to maintain the arms embargo on Uzbekistan for 12 months and the visa ban for 6 months. Human rights dialogue would be allowed. He was not completely certain that the GONL would support the U.S.-led resolution on Uzbekistan but believed it most likely. SOLBERG