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