DEMARCHE TO AUSTRIA ON AMENDING THE CUBA EMBARGO

C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 003272 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR IO AND EUR/AGS - SAINT-ANDRE E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL UNGA UN CU AU SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO AUSTRIA ON AMENDING THE CUBA EMBARGO RESOLUTION -- CUBANS TO SEEK NO-ACTION ON AMENDMENT REF: A. STATE 184156 ¶B. VIENNA 3246 ¶C. STATE 182099 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Gregory E. Phillips. Reasons: 1 .4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) Charge delivered ref (A) immediate action demarche to Andreas Melan, the Austrian MFA's Latin America head, on November 8 at 1130 local. ¶2. (C) Melan was in the process of coordinating the Austrian position with the MFA's human rights and international organizations bureaus. He noted that the Cuban Embassy was making a demarche on the same subject at the same time. Melan outlined the following Austrian position: -- The EU will vote as a bloc, as it normally does on these issues. EU Missions to the UN would meet at OOB November 8 in New York to coordinate their position on the Australian amendment to the Cuban embargo resolution. -- Austria understood that the Cubans would present a no-action motion on the Australian amendment. The EU had a standing policy of voting against no-action motions on human rights issues, and the EU would naturally vote against the Cuban no-action motion. -- However, the Austrians believed that the no-action motion would pass, killing the Australian amendment. Melan noted that there are over 100 co-sponsors of the Cuban embargo resolution, and he thought it highly likely that most would support the Cuban no-action motion. -- That said, Austria would support an EU position to vote in favor of the Australian amendment, if it came to a vote. -- EU member states would vote in favor of the Cuban embargo resolution. EU member states would also deliver a strong Explanation of Vote (EOV),over half of which would be on human rights issues. ¶3. (C) Melan provided the text of the Australian amendment, as the Austrian MFA had received it from the Cubans. Begin Text: 3.bis Noting that the (sic) such laws and measures were motivated by valid concerns about the the (sic) continued lack of democracy and political freedom in Cuba, calls upon the Cuban Government to release unconditionally all political prisoners, cooperate fully with international human rights bodies and mechanisms, respect the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and comply fully with its obligations under all human rights treaties to which it is a State Party. Phillips