CONTRASTING INDIA AND IRAN FOR THE ARMENIANS

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 000323 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2016 TAGS: AM IR IN KSCA PARM PREL SUBJECT: CONTRASTING INDIA AND IRAN FOR THE ARMENIANS REF: A. STATE 33729 ¶B. STATE 34761 ¶C. YEREVAN 295 Classified By: Ambassador John M. Evans for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Ambassador delivered points contained refs A and B to Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakossian March 6, editorializing that, whereas India, though not a signatory of the NPT, had now agreed with the United States to enter the non-proliferation mainstream, Iran, an NPT signatory, was still defying the IAEA and the international community. ¶2. (C) Ambassador added that, as Armenia considered how to handle the requests of both India and Iran for observer status at this June's meeting in Yerevan of the Association of State Nuclear Authorities of Countries Operating VVER-Type reactors (Ref C),it might be worth taking into account the different approaches that India and Iran had chosen. ¶3. (C) DFM was accompanied by MFA Arms control and International Security Advisor Vartuhi Asaturian and Americas Desk officer Lilit Toutkhalian. Participants on both sides were aware that the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna was underway at the time. Armenian officials told us February 28 that they were waiting on the outcome of that meeting, and possibly action also in the UNSC, before taking a final decision on the issue of whether to sustain the Association's decision of last year in Finland to invite China, India and Iran. The Armenian officials made no commitment to issuing a statement on the U.S.-India nuclear agreement. EVANS