AUSTRIAN RESPONSE ON IRANIAN REQUEST FOR

S E C R E T VIENNA 003114 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/AGS (SAINT ANDRE) AND EUR/PRA E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2016 TAGS: PREL PARM ETTC IR AU SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE ON IRANIAN REQUEST FOR AMMUNITION PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT REF: STATE 172911 Classified By: Economic-Political Counselor Gregory E. Phillips. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (S/NF) EconPolCouns discussed reftel demarche on October 17 with Ralph Scheide, MFA's Assistant Secretary for the Middle East and Africa. Scheide immediately consulted with Margit Bruck-Friedrich, the MFA's export control expert. Bruck-Friedrich informed Scheide that she had not seen an export license request for the Kufsteiner transfer. Scheide and Bruck-Friedrich said that they would be "amazed" if the GoA would approve such a transfer. ¶2. (S/NF) Econ Unit Chief and PolOff followed up on October 19 with Helmut Krehlik, Head of the Export and Import Control Division in the Ministry of Economy (MoE). During the meeting, Krehlik verified in the MoE's database that the MoE had not received a license application from Kufsteiner Waffenstube (also known as Voere Kufsteiner Geratebau) for dies, punches, or any other ammunition production equipment or arms for Iran. He confirmed that in 2006 Voere/Kufsteiner Waffenstube had submitted approximately 15 license applications to export ammunition production equipment to New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, and Bulgaria. The MoE had also received export license applications from the company for small quantities of hunting and military rifles to customers in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Caledonia, Croatia, and Bulgaria. ¶3. (S/NF) Krehlik confirmed that exports of these dies and punches would clearly require a GoA license. He added that, while the machine that produces the dies and punches is dual-use, the dies and punches are specially constructed for military purposes, and thus fall under the Wassenaar Arrangement. Krehlik promised to investigate the matter and contact the company, and report his findings back to the embassy. McCaw