POLAND: SOLICITING SUPPORT FOR ROBUST UNIFIL-PLUS

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 001758 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/21/2011 TAGS: MARR MOPS PREL LE PL SUBJECT: POLAND: SOLICITING SUPPORT FOR ROBUST UNIFIL-PLUS AND POSSIBLE ITALIAN LEAD REF: A. STATE 137424 ¶B. EUR-VOLKER EMAIL 8/21/06 ¶C. WARSAW 1746 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Political Counselor Mary Curtin, reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Pol External Chief delivered Ref A points August 22 to Krzysztof Plominski, MFA Director for ME-Africa. Plominski said that FM Fotyga was to meet at 1200 with DefMin Sikorski to review GOP plans for UNIFIL-plus in advance of the August 23 meeting of selected EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Plominski rushed a copy of the points to MFA U/S Waszczykowski, who was on his way to the Fotyga-Sikorski meeting, and also instructed his staff to distribute the U.S. position to members of the GOP's interagency Lebanon working group. ¶2. (C) Plominski indicated that the GOP was conducting extensive consultations about UNIFIL with key governments. He himself had visited Paris ten days earlier, and the MFA was consulting closely Rome with as well. Plominski said that U/S Waszczykowski was planning to visit "Beirut and Jerusalem" August 28-29, both for consultations on the Lebanon situation and to advance President Lech Kaczynski's planned visit to Israel September 10. ¶3. (C) Although unwilling to predict the outcome of the Fotyga-Sikorski meeting, Plominski seemd relatively optimistic. He allowed that the GOP was considering three options for UNIFIL-plus, status quo with the current approx. 220 troops; a small increase in the contingent; or a larger increase in the contingent. He did not discuss numbers. (N.B. Charge has raised UNIFIL several times with Deputy FM Kowal (Ref C),and Ambassador will also raise it in his August 24 call on PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski.) ¶4. (C) COMMENT. Poland has limited troops available for foreign missions, and they are already stretched thin by commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and international missions in the Balkans and the Middle East (including UNIFIL, MFO and the Sinai). However, based on public statements by U/S Waszczykowski and Charge discussions with DefMin Sikorski, we believe the GOP can probably afford to augment its UNIFIL contingent by a maximum of 300. Due to the restructuring of the Composite Command in Afghanistan, the Poles had already determined in consultation with ISAF that they needed only 700 of the 1000 troops originally designated to undergo training for the Polish ISAF command rotation. These 300 could still be deployed to augment the Afghanistan commitment, or they could go UNIFIL-plus. END COMMENT. HILLAS