AUSTRIA TO FOLLOW EU CONSENSUS ON UNESCO SPECIAL

UNCLAS VIENNA 000717 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR IO/UNESCO AND EUR/AGS - SAINT-ANDRE AND O'KEEFFE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAL UNESCO AU SUBJECT: AUSTRIA TO FOLLOW EU CONSENSUS ON UNESCO SPECIAL SESSION ON JERUSALEM REF: STATE 33996 ¶1. (SBU) EconPolCouns delivered reftel demarche on March 21 to Franz Josef Kuglitsch, the acting head of the Austrian MFA's Middle East Bureau. (The international organizations bureau referred us to their regional colleagues as the action office on this issue.) Wolfgang Lapuh, the MFA's DAS-level Near East director, joined the meeting. ¶2. (SBU) Kuglitsch and Lapuh seemed unaware that the Austrian Ambassador had spoken in favor of a special session per para. 15 reftel). They said Austria would follow an EU consensus on how to respond to the idea, and promised to take account of our strong arguments against it. They added that they were under the impression that there was a certain "automaticity" to holding a special session if there were a proper request for one. We argued that this was not the case, and that UNESCO member states needed to make clear that they oppose the politicization of the body. McCaw