DELIVERY OF DEMARCHE ON INCREASING FINANCIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 002091 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2018 TAGS: EFIN KNNP MNUC IR TU SUBJECT: DELIVERY OF DEMARCHE ON INCREASING FINANCIAL PRESSURE ON IRAN REF: SECSTATE 125551 Classified By: Economic Counselor Dale Eppler for reasons 1.4 b, d ¶1. (C) Econ Counselor delivered reftel demarche on December 3 jointly with representatives of the UK, Italian, French and German embasssies to Devrim Ozturk, Head of MFA's South Asia Department. Italian DCM Alessandro Azzoni read the joint talking points, noting that he was speaking for all five countries. Econ Counselor added that this demarche was not singling out Turkey, but was being delivered jointly in at least ten capitals. UK Economic Counselor Catherine Barnes said the UK wants to maintain financial sanctions in place because Iran is not cooperating with the international community. French DCM Antoine Anfre said that France wants to see financial sanctions tightened to avoid either of the two alternatives: an Iranian nuclear bomb or a bombing of Iran. ¶2. (C) A visibly nervous Ozturk said the GOT agrees with the international community and does not want to see a nuclear-capable Iran. Turkey has no problem with and strictly abides by all UNSCRs, and wants to maintain international solidarity on Iran. If new sanctions receive UN Security Council approval, Turkey will abide by them. But it is important that Iran sanctions have the "international uniformity and legitimacy" of a UNSCR. ¶3. (C) German political counselor Arno Kirchhof noted that there is no agreement in the UN Security Council on new sanctions, so Germany is enacting them on a national country basis and is asking its partners to consider doing the same. Ozturk said the GOT would "look into it," but added that by law and constitution, Turkey cannot support unilateral sanctions, only UNSCRs. (Note: Ozturk construed a provision in the Turkish constitution that makes Chapter 7 UNSCRs equivalent to law as a legal prohibition against imposing any sanctions except those contained in UNSCRs. End note.) Barnes asked if the GOT would abide by EU common positions, such as those cited in the talking points. Ozturk responded that the rules of organizations in which Turkey was not a full member had no legal status in Turkey. All of the EU members replied to this, noting that Turkey is an EU accession country, that EU common positions would eventually be applicable to Turkey, and that during the accession process, the EU and EU member countries expect Turkey to align with EU common positions as much as possible. Ozturk repeated that the GOT does not view EU common positions as binding on accession countries. ¶4. (C) Econ Counselor gave Ozturk the reftel non-paper, emphasizing that it was a USG bilateral document providing more detail on Iran's deceptive financial practices. Azzoni noted that the presence of Bank Mellat in Istanbul was another reason why his government was concerned about the potential for Iranian misuse of the Turkish financial system. Ozturk said that Bank Mellat is operating legally in Turkey and the GOT has not received any information indicating that Mellat had violated Turkish law or UNSCRs. He added that Turkish banks are already very cautious about dealing with Iran, and admitted that most Turkish private banks have made business decisions to abide by unilateral sanctions imposed by other countries. ¶5. (SBU) Mission Turkey also plans to deliver reftel talking points to the Turkish Bankers Association, the Bank Regulatory Agency (BDDK) and the Turkish financial intelligence unit (MASAK). Reaction from those entities will be reported septel. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey JEFFREY