FRANCE WARY OF SHARING NSG'S EXPORT DENIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 001332 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2016 TAGS: MNUC KNNP IAEA IR SUBJECT: FRANCE WARY OF SHARING NSG'S EXPORT DENIAL INFORMATION ON IRAN REF: STATE 39585 Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Bruce Turner for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Poloff met April 4 to deliver reftel demarche to the MFA's Luis Vassy, desk officer for the NSG, and David Bertolloti, desk officer for Iranian non-proliferation, in the Bureau of Strategic Affairs to deliver reftel demarche. Vassy said the MFA would have difficulty supporting the U.S. proposition in its current form, but would be receptive if French concerns were taken into account. Vassy said the MFA worried that the lists of export denial information provided to the NSG would be too extensive to be of practical use to the UNSC. Given that so many exports are barred for Iran, the list could potentially include numerous items intended for various commericial uses; such an all-inclusive list risked giving the UNSC a skewed impression of what items Iran was in fact seeking for its nuclear program. ¶2. (C) Secondly, Vassy was concerned that any such list, owing to its specificity, could potentially compromise sensitive prohibitions on exports that the French believe some NSG Participating Governments would prefer not to make known outside the NSG. Vassy proposed instead that the NSG develop an abbreviated list that identifies those items most in demand and their end users. He suggested that initially the list could be developed by the presidency and held for internal use, but eventually distributed in the service of "outreach activities." Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON