READ-OUT OF MESIC - AHMADINEJAD UNGA MEETING

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000920 SIPDIS DEPT FOR ISN, T, EUR AND NEA PLEASE PASS TREASURY E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/05/2017 TAGS: PREL KNNP IR HR SUBJECT: READ-OUT OF MESIC - AHMADINEJAD UNGA MEETING REF: A. BALIAN-BRADTKE 9/26/07 EMAIL ¶B. ZAGREB 876 ¶C. STATE 132302 ¶D. ZAGREB 850 Classified By: DCM Vivian Walker, Reasons 1.4 B/D (C) In an October 4 meeting with the DCM and visiting EUR/SCE Director Hoh, Presidential Foreign Policy Advisor Tomislav Jakic provided a read-out of Croatian President Mesic's September 25 meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the margins of the UNGA in New York. Jakic once again (REFs B and D) stressed that the request for the meeting was an Iranian initiative. He said Mesic achieved all three of his objectives for the meeting, which were: i) to express Croatian interest in increased economic cooperation with Iran; ii) to note Croatia's belief that every country has the right to pursue nuclear energy, but only with full transparency and in full cooperation with international regimes and obligations; and iii) to stress that it was impossible to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust or to question the right to existence of an internationally recognized UN member state such as Israel. Jakic said that Ahmadinejad, who began the meeting with a broad smile, was sigificantly more subdued at the conclusion of the meeting, which he ended with the invitation "to discuss these issues further in Tehran." Jakic said Mesic had "accepted" the invitation, and looked forward to going, but only, as the Presidency's press release after the meeting had put it, "when all the proper conditions for such a visit would exist." BRADTKE