SWISS RESPONSE TO USG VIEWS ON RECENT IAEA REPORT

S E C R E T BERN 000107 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR ISN/RA (R.NEPHEW),IO/T (H.VONBEHREN) E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2018 TAGS: PARM KNNP IAEA MNUC IR SZ SUBJECT: SWISS RESPONSE TO USG VIEWS ON RECENT IAEA REPORT AND BRIEFING ON IRAN REF: A. STATE 19200 ¶B. STATE 19694 ¶C. BERN 68 Classified By: Poloff Chris Buck; reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Contains action request; please see para 4. ¶2. (S) Poloff delivered the nonpapers in reftels A and B on February 28 to Andreas Friedrich, Head of the MFA Arms Control and Disarmament Section. Jean-Daniel Praz, Friedrich's deputy, also participated in the meeting. Friedrich said that he will accompany Swiss IAEA Governor Walter Steinmann (Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy) to the March 3-7 Board of Governors (BOG) meeting in Vienna. After reviewing the information in the nonpapers, Friedrich responded that he anticipates that Switzerland will make a national statement at next week's IAEA BOG, and that the statement would be quite similar "in substance, if not accent," to the views expressed in the nonpapers. ¶3. (S) Friedrich and Praz had a number of questions not directly addressed in the reftel nonpapers. Friedrich asked whether the USG or others were planning a resolution on Iran at the March 3-7 BOG. He also asked to what extent the ElBaradei report and Heinonen briefing may have improved the chances of obtaining agreement on a third UNSC resolution on Iran, and what the timing for such a UNSCR might be. Praz asked whether any of the information on potential Iranian weaponization activities had become available after the USG's most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran (NIE). ¶4. (C) Action Request: If feasible, post believes it would be useful to try to answer as many of the Swiss questions in para 2 above as possible, either here or in Vienna/New York, prior to the upcoming BOG, to maximize the chances for helpful GOS engagement during the meeting. CONEWAY