CYPRUS TO BE HELPFUL WITHIN EU ON FURTHER

UNCLAS NICOSIA 000514 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE TO EUR/SE AND NEA/IR RMCINTURFF E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KDEM IR CY PHUM EUN SUBJECT: CYPRUS TO BE HELPFUL WITHIN EU ON FURTHER STATEMENTS REGARDING IRANIAN HARASSMENT/DETENTION OF AMCITS REF: STATE 80300 (SBU) Poloff June 12 delivered reftel points to MFA Near East Affairs Attache Dionysis Dionysiou. Dionysiou responded June 13 that Cyprus likely would not take any unilateral action over the recent harassment/detention of private Americans by the Iranian regime. For various reasons, Cyprus had little hope of influencing Teheran, he explained. Despite each maintaining an embassy in the other's territory, for example, Iranian-Cypriot relations were not close. To prove the point, he noted that the Iranian Ambassador to Cyprus had visited the MFA only once, for his courtesy call on Foreign Minister Lillikas. In Tehran, the Cypriot Embassy was being run by a TDYer in the wake of a recent scandal involving its former ambassador; the official was too busy with internal management issues to do any bilateral work. Further, Cyprus was a small island state with few carrots and no sticks to employ with the GoI. The picture was somewhat brighter on the multilateral front, however. Dionysiou assured Poloff that Cyprus supported the recent EU Presidency Statement against Iran's recent actions. It also was open to a French proposal to include in the Council Conclusions for next week's GAERC meeting a statement urging the protection of academics and dual nationals visiting Iran. ZIMMERMAN