IRAN'S NSA JALILI SNUBBED BY EU OFFICIALS BUT SET

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 000100 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2018 TAGS: PREL MNUC UNSC ETTC KNNP IR EUN BE SUBJECT: IRAN'S NSA JALILI SNUBBED BY EU OFFICIALS BUT SET TO MEET PARLIAMENTARIANS REF: BRUSSELS 00092 Classified By: Laurence Wohlers, Political Minister Counselor for reaso ns 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) During his visit to Brussels the week of January 21 en route to Davos, Iran's National Security Advisor Said Jalili is scheduled to address an open session of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. However, the European Commission and Council Secretariat have refused Jalili's request for meetings with senior EU officials. According to a reliable Council Secretariat source, the Iranian Ambassador to the EU had approached the European Commission shortly after the New Year to request meetings for Jalili with EU President Barroso and RELEX Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, but not/not with CFSP High Rep Solana. Commission officials reportedly told the Iranians that Jalili's portfolio (read: nuclear issues) was too specific to justify a meeting with Barroso. Furthermore, a meeting with Ferrero-Waldner could not be considered unless and until a meeting with Solana had been arranged. Solana's staff was pleased by he Commission's response to the Iranians. The Council Secretariat has not, to date, received a request for a Solana meeting. Speaking in unusually blunt terms, our source remarked that Solana had no wish to Jalili. Solana considered his bilateral dialogue with his designated Iranian counterpart "over," and had signaled as much by his submission of a negative report to the P5 1 on their last round of talks. ¶2. (C) Furthermore, the Council Secretariat was chagrined by the European Parliament (EP) decision to invite Jalili to speak at an open session of the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) on January 22. Our source noted that the timing of the EP's action "could not be worse," given the discussions of the P5 1 scheduled to take place that same week. Solana's deputy, Robert Cooper, may contact EP President Hans-Gert Poettering to attempt to dissuade him from receiving Jalili. Cooper also plans to brief MEPs on Iran in advance of the FAC meeting. Unhappy that the EP event would advance Tehran's media objectives in Europe, our contact consoled himself with the prospect that it would also demonstrate the irrelevance of the EP in EU foreign policy decision-making. (Note: USEU is contacting MEPs in advance of the Jalili event to highlight the importance of a unified and consistent message on Iran's need to comply with relevant UNSCRs. End Note) ¶3. (C) Finally, our Council contact reported that Cooper was pessimistic about forthcoming P5 1 discussions on a third UNSCR on sanctions against Iran. Specifically, Cooper felt that China's and Russia's stated interest in discussing "strategy" instead of texts was a signal that they were preparing to stonewall the West. Council officials also believed that the release of the U.S. NIE and new GAO report on the impact of U.S. (unilateral) sanctions had provided Moscow and Beijing with a pretext for protracting the debate. MURRAY .