AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 26, 2007

UNCLAS VIENNA 000773 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/AGS, INR/EU, AND EUR/PPD FOR YVETTE SAINT-ANDRE OSD FOR COMMANDER CHAFFEE WHITEHOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO AU OPRC SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 26, 2007 Darabos Hoping for Eurofighter Pullout ¶1. Defense Minister Norbert Darabos (SPOe) is still confident he has legal grounds for a cancellation of the Eurofighter purchase contract. A complete backing-out of the deal continues to be "our number one priority," he stressed on Austrian television. "Intensive negotiations" to that effect will start next week. According to Darabos, a considerable part of the contract had "obviously been dictated," and it was therefore necessary to investigate whether that "violated customary norms." Darabos also reiterated his view that his predecessor is to blame for the missing software licenses, without which the jets cannot be delivered to Austria. Mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich suggests the Defense Minister is playing for time in the controversy over the Eurofighters: Speaking on ORF TV, he underscored the jets would not be delivered to Austria as long as the software licenses have not been obtained from the US. Darabos believes it is unlikely the licenses will be given before June 1, when the planes are scheduled to arrive in Austria. The Minister added that in addition to pursuing his "top priority," a potential withdrawal from the deal, he would also continue looking at other options, including the purchase of fewer jets as well as rebates on maintenance costs. Liberal daily Der Standard meanwhile in a front-page report suggests the United States is taking its time awarding the necessary software licenses. However, the daily quotes Darabos, it is not the US that is to blame for the situation, but the previous Austrian government. Leaders Sign Berlin Declaration ¶2. On the occasion of celebrations to mark 50 years of the European Union, the 27 member states emphasized their continuing commitment to the EU. Heads of state and government meeting in the German capital on Sunday signed the "Berlin Declaration," paving the way for institutional reforms by 2009. There is no mention of the EU constitution in the declaration, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a summit to address the crisis over the EU Constitution. She will present a timetable "setting the course for key institutional issues" by June, she stressed, and warned against a failure of EU reforms. Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised the German EU Presidency, stating on Sunday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier "could not have done a better job." ORF online news quotes Gusenbauer as saying that the Germans "are highly professional, indeed. Merkel and Steinmeier are a good team and are doing their jobs in a sensible manner; they are keeping people in the loop and maintain direct contacts." Gusenbauer also emphasized that the Berlin Declaration would provide an important impulse for the European constitutional treaty. He said Austria is very concerned that the treaty come to fruition and that it would contribute to the democratization of the EU. US Diplomat on Missile Shield ¶3. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Pekala explained plans for a missile defense system, which the United States wants to put up in European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic. When asked about widespread European opposition to the plan, DAS Pekala underscored that if Europeans are made aware of America's argument that the defense shield will make Europe more stable and secure and help deepen transatlantic relations, they might be more supportive of the idea. In an interview with centrist daily Die Presse, Mark A. Pekala, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, explains US plans for a missile defense system in Europe. In the debate on the issue, the US wants to "talk about the basic facts, i.e. the threats, the defense system's structure, with our allies in NATO, our partners and Russia." The US has in fact been "discussing missile defense with NATO and Russia for years. Understanding the facts will help people understand our argument that this system will provide more security and stability for Europe and boost the transatlantic relations. A secure Europe means a secure US, and vice versa." The United States is also trying to "take Russia's concerns into account. We have explained to them that this defense shield is not an offensive system that is directed against them," (...) and "have even offered Moscow cooperation on missile defense." In fact, the planned shield is directed against Iran. The country could be capable of developing long-range missiles by 2010 or 2015, which could reach targets in Europe and the United States. But the missile defense shield would give us a good chance to shoot down these Iranian rockets." Pekala dismissed concerns the US was trying to "drive a wedge between European countries" with the defense system: "On the contrary; we consider Europe a partner with whom we want to achieve much in the world, be it the stabilization of Afghanistan, development in Iraq, further democratization in other areas of the world, or humanitarian aid and peacekeeping missions, and much more. Creating a rift within Europe would be counterproductive to all these goals." Freud Would Have Had Fun ¶4. ... headlines an Austrian daily, reporting on the opening of an exhibition at the Vienna Freud Museum last week. The show presents 80 cartoons dealing with the topic of psychoanalysis, published in The New Yorker magazine since the 1920s. US Embassy Vienna's Deputy Chief of Mission Scott Kilner spoke at the exhibition's opening, wrote liberal daily Der Standard on March 24. Iran Defiant Despite Sanctions ¶5. Iran says it is unimpressed by the tightening of United Nations sanctions in the dispute over its nuclear ambitions. Pressure and intimidation would not alter his country's stance, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stressed. However, Iran was not seeking confrontation; merely asserting its unalienable rights, he added. Suspension of its uranium enrichment activities was therefore not an option. The UN Security Council voted Saturday to tighten sanctions against Iran, including an embargo on weapons exports and an expansion of the existing freeze of Iranian financial assets. Liberal daily Der Standard in a feature article says the international community's harsher tone towards Tehran has so far failed to be successful. The new sanctions show increased resistance of the world community to Iran's nuclear program: The UNSC resolution is "an appropriate and necessary reaction to the fact that Iran continues to defy the international community's will," German Foreign Minister Fran-Walter Steinmeier underscored. And US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, said that his government would push for a third and even tougher resolution, should Iran remain unrelenting regarding its nuclear ambitions. Tehran, however, is not prepared to give up uranium enrichment: Even the strongest punitive measures could not force his country to give up its atomic program, the Iranian Foreign Minister stressed. The daily's foreign affairs editor Gudrun Harrer argues that the "degree of destructiveness, especially self-destructiveness which the regime in Teheran is showing these days, is frightening. All the hopes, which especially the Iranians themselves might have entertained, that the forces which gained influence when President Ahmadinejad was elected are already waning, have so far proved vain. On the contrary, those forces are on the rise. (...) On Friday, Iran lost even its last supporters. Even the position held by Arab and Islamic states and which is directed against Israel - in favor of a nuclear-free Middle East - was given up without resistance by Qatar and Indonesia. (...) If Iran continues to pursue escalation for too long, it will become difficult to abandon it." Foreign affairs writer for independent provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten Thomas Spang comments that Under-Secretary Nicholas Burns, "who was instrumental in devising Iran Resolution 1747, concluded that the US and its European partners had achieved more than they could have expected. To prove this, Washington referred to the support of three important non-permanent members of the Security Council that gave up their reservations with regard to new sanctions. (...) However, if the US does not want to lose its allies it can only move step by step. Washington should launch a diplomatic initiative aimed at the Mullah regime. To do so, however, the Bush administration would have to show a readiness to not just talk with others about Iran, but negotiate directly with its potentates. Such talks could generate a solution to the nuclear crisis." And, foreign affairs editor for centrist daily Die Presse Christian Ultsch says that the strategy to use "gentle pressure" to get the Iranians to abandon their uranium enrichment program, "has not been successful so far and it won't be successful in the medium-term future either. There is everything to indicate that the Iranians want to step up their nuclear efforts so as to have the bomb within reach - possibly to backpedal at the last moment and then capitalize on this decision and accept the West's lucrative cooperation offer. Teheran knows that the US is not in a position to open another war front. Therefore the mullahs will continue their poker game as long as the UN sanctions are not too damaging." British Prime Minister Tony Blair has denounced Iran's detention of 15 British navy personnel as unjustified and wrong. He stressed that Tehran's claim that the sailors were trespassing in Iranian territorial waters when they were seized on Friday was untrue. British officials have not been told where the group is being held. Iran has meanwhile accused the sailors of espionage. The incident is particularly explosive, given the ongoing tensions over Iran's nuclear program, Austrian media comment. Kilner