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