TURKISH IMPLEMENTATION OF IRAN SANCTIONS INCHING

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 001672 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2017 TAGS: KNNP TU IR SUBJECT: TURKISH IMPLEMENTATION OF IRAN SANCTIONS INCHING FORWARD REF: A. STATE 84207 ¶B. ANKARA 1530 ¶C. ANKARA 1393 ¶D. ANKARA 1220 ¶E. ANKARA 1210 Classified By: Economic Counselor Tom Goldberger for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Turkish officials informed us that the Council of Ministers has signed the decree implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1737. The decree now is awaiting the Prime Minister's and President's signatures before coming into effect. End Summary. ¶2. (C) MFA Iran desk checked with the Prime Ministry and confirmed that the 1737 implementing decree had now been signed by all members of the Council of Ministers. The next step is for the Prime Minister to sign and pass it to the Presidency for President Sezer's signature. The MFA official did not expect any substantive resistance from either the Prime Minister or President but could not predict how long it would take. Comment: Although he denied that the July 22 parliamentary elections were slowing down the wheels of government, we have our doubts, given that Prime Minister Erdogan is currently consumed by politics, spending much of his time on the campaign trail. End Comment. As reported earlier, only when the 1737 decree has come into force will the MFA propose the implementing package for 1747 to the Council of Ministers. ¶3. (C) We delivered ref a demarche to which there was no substantive response. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON