INFORMATION REGARDING THE ADOPTION OF UNSCR 1747

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000637 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN, IO, AND EUG/AGS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2017 TAGS: KNNP EFIN IR IAEA PARM MNUC TRGY AORC UNSC GM SUBJECT: INFORMATION REGARDING THE ADOPTION OF UNSCR 1747 PASSED TO GERMANY REF: SECSTATE 37801 Classified By: Global Affairs Counselor Donald R. Shemanski, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Global Affairs Counselor and Global Affairs officer delivered ref demarche to Ingo Karsten, Office Director of the German MFA's International Economic Policy Division, and Desk Officer Claudia Schuett of the same division March 28. Karsten said the German Government agrees with all aspects of UNSCR 1747 and the sanctions against Iran. ¶2. (C) Karsten and Schuett said the German Government, under the authority provided by the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, issued a national directive to freeze the assets of the Bank Sepah branch in Frankfurt. According to Schuett, the Bundesbank's Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) acted to ensure that the liquidity of Bank Sepah was not transferred abroad via individual withdrawals. Schuett added that a BaFin official entered Bank Sepah earlier this week to supervise the freezing of assets, to which the Iranian Embassy lodged a complaint with the German MFA. Karsten said BaFin is implementing the sanctions to block any potential transactions connected with Iranian WMD proliferation financing and also to ensure that no German creditors' deposits will be used to support Iranian WMD programs. ¶3. (C) In response to Global Affairs Counselor's query about an EU directive to implement the sanctions under UNSCR 1747, Karsten said the procedure will be the same as for the earlier UNSCR 1737 sanctions against Iran. First, the EU Council will have to adopt a common position, which will be published, and then the EU will issue a binding directive to all EU members. Karsten predicted that the EU Council will act faster than it did with UNSCR 1737, because UNSCR 1747 implementation will only require an amendment to the earlier directive. KOENIG