SLOVENIA RESPONSE TO FEBRUARY GAERC DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000071 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/NCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV ETRD SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA RESPONSE TO FEBRUARY GAERC DEMARCHE REF: SECSTATE 13840 Classified By: COM Thomas B. Robertson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Polecon Chief met with MFA EU Correspondent Aljaz Arih to discuss reftel points February 9. -- Kosovo/Serbia: The GOS sees Ahtisaari's presentation of his draft plan as a significant step toward settlement of Kosovo's status and agrees with the USG that a firm timeline should be maintained. Nonetheless, Arih was interested in USG views of a 10 day delay to allow the Serbian Parliament to form. On Serbia, Slovenia has been promoting an policy of engagement now with no commitments to EU membership without full cooperation with ICTY. Arih thought there were still holdouts within the EU, but that some version of this approach would be approved by the Ministers next week. --Israel/Palestine: The GOS is encouraged by talks taking place in Mecca between the two Palestinian factions and hopes to see more such constructive engagement by Arab countries in the future. Slovenia is also happy that the Quint has met recently and plans to meet again this month. Arih expressed a concern that once US election campaigns got underway, the window for progress on Israel/Palestine would close. -- Iran: Slovenia fully supports swift implementation of UNSCR 1737. Given the amount of compromise negotiation that went into getting the EU on board with 1737, Arih did not believe it would be open to discussion of further sanctions in the near future. Slovenia supports a two pronged approach to Iran. One is to be firm on denying it the means for becoming a nuclear power and the other is to find avenues of engagement through civil society. To this end, Slovenia supports sending a European Commission representative to be resident in Tehran, and who would be able to manage and coordinate EU initiatives on the ground. -- Afghanistan: Taking on board our urging to move swiftly, Arih's understanding was that the EU wanted to roll out its ESDP police mission by June, but that it would depend on how well internal discussions and negotiations went. -- Sudan: Arih thought the GAERC would only be adopting the agreement reached last month, and that it would be difficult for the EU to support a discussion of sanctions at this time. He agreed it was important to finance Addis but added that it would be important to share the burden and get the Arabia League to make good on its past pledges as well as to bring in other countries with interests in the region such as Russia and China to share the burden. -- Somalia: Last month's discussion was interesting, according to Arih, and he said that the Commission had been very insistent that the process be inclusive, and that the transitional government had to be open to talks with all stakeholders. Arih mentioned the importance of having a clear mandate for AMISOM before the EU would release funding - however, the funding is ready to go once that condition is satisfied. ROBERTSON