GREECE "WON'T BE LAST" EU STATE OPPOSING EU IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 002053 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV IR XF EUN GR SUBJECT: GREECE "WON'T BE LAST" EU STATE OPPOSING EU IRAN SANCTIONS REF: A. SECSTATE 143223 ¶B. ATHENS 2046 Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES, A.I. THOMAS COUNTRYMAN. REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) On October 12, Charge delivered ref a points on French-proposed autonomous EU sanctions on Iran to MFA Secretary General Aristides Agathokles. Charge emphasized SIPDIS that the EU-U.S. common program regarding Iran has been amongst the most successful examples of EU-U.S. cooperation in recent years and one in which the U.S. has worked hard to follow the lead of the EU Three. We had seen evidence that UN sanctions had gotten the attention of the Iranian leadership, but as long as Iran could maintain relatively normal economic relations with Europe, the Iranian leadership was unlikely to stop its nuclear development program. Thus, the EU should support not only UN sanctions but parallel EU sanctions as well. ¶2. (C) Agathokles granted the force of these arguments and noted Greece's desire to stop Iran from developing a nuclear capability. Greece, however, was in a difficult position, due to its proximity to Iran and to the readiness of Turkey to step in whenever Greece sided with the EU against Iran or Syria. Agathokles cited a recent example of Syria's opening ferry service to Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus following Greece's decision to join consensus with the EU against Syria (exact issue unspecified). ¶3. (C) Charge responded that wh, indeed, could playot allow its larger Qbe subverted by the Greek/thokles concluded by noti not be the last EU me French-proposed paraIran. COUNTRYMAN