ARGENTINA: TERRORIST FINANCE DEMARCHES DELIVERED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 002100 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/24/2017 TAGS: EFIN KTFN PTER ETTC PREL AR SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: TERRORIST FINANCE DEMARCHES DELIVERED REF: A. STATE 138972 ¶B. STATE 142629 ¶C. STATE 121245 ¶D. BUENOS AIRES 1813 Classified By: EconOff Chris Landberg for E.O. 12958 Reasons 1.4 (b and d) ¶1. (C) Econoff conveyed the pre-notification demarche on the USG designation to the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee of seven Iraqi individuals (Ref A) on October 10 to Jose Ignacio Tobella, Acting Director, Office of Terrorism Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As per reftel instructions, Econoff explained that the U.S. planned to submit the name of FAWZI MUTLAQ AL-RAWI, terrorist financier, to the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee on/about October 17. Econoff also indicated that the U.S. planned to submit the names of six additional individuals on/about October 19 to the UN 1518 Sanctions Committee to be listed under UNSCR 1483. Econoff subsequently passed the Spanish translation to Tobella, for circulation to appropriate GoA offices. ¶2. (C) Econoff also delivered the Spanish translation of Ref B demarche to Tobella on October 25, informing him of the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee's October 9 decision to approve the addition of three Saudi individuals (out of the original five -- Ref C) to its list of individuals/entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Taliban, and/or al-Qaeda. EconOff had provided information in English and Spanish on the original list of five Saudi individuals on September 10 (reported Ref D),and had notified Tobella in mid-October of the decision to reduce the list to just three individuals. ¶3. (C) For both groups of individuals, Tobella reiterated that his office will follow its standard procedure for handling UN Sanctions Committee notifications: the MFA holds the information until the U.S. delivers the request to the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee. The MFA then distributes it to the appropriate officials at the Central Bank, SEC, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU),Intelligence Secretariat, and Internal Security Secretariat. The Central Bank subsequently distributes the names of the designated individuals to financial institutions operating in Argentina, and reports any hits back to the MFA. Tobella assured Econoff he would inform the Embassy of any substantive action th GoA takes in the future on either issue. To date, the MFA has not heard of any case of a designated individual or organization with a connection to the Argentine financial system (although there are frequently false hits). Post will advise Department of any subsequent substantive reaction or GoA actions. WAYNE