GREECE: EXPANDED NATO TRAINING MSSION-IRAQ PAPERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 001015 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/15/2018 TAGS: GR IZ MARR PGOV PREL NATO SUBJECT: GREECE: EXPANDED NATO TRAINING MSSION-IRAQ PAPERS DELIVERED REF: STATE 73794 Classified By: A/POL COUNSELOR JEFF HOVENIER. REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) On 11 July, A/Pol Counselor and Poloff delivered ref A points on NTM-I to Ambassador Heracles Asteriades, Director of the MFA D-2 Directorate for the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) and the Western European Union (WEU). A/Pol Counselor emphasized that now that the NAC had taken a decision to enhance the NTM-I Missi+n it was essential for Allies to provi$e the nece3sary resources to make this decisikn a reality& Asteriades stated Greece wm5ld carefUlly consi$er these points, but re)terated that Greece baced enormous political constraints on the question of deploying any personnel to Iraq, including to NTM-I. After reviewing the possible requirements, he suggested that Greece might be prepared to consider providing temporary guest lecturers at the National Defense University. We reiterated that NTM-I's needs are real, that Greece has the assets to help fill these new requirements, and it is important that Greece carefully consider a contribution to NTM-I. SPECKHARD