EU COUNCIL OFFICIAL DISCUSSES SYRIA, LEBANON, AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 000101 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV SY LE IZ IR EUN SUBJECT: EU COUNCIL OFFICIAL DISCUSSES SYRIA, LEBANON, AND IRAQ Classified By: Alyce Tidball, Deputy Minister Counselor for Political A ffairs for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) European Union Council Head of Middle East Unit Christian Jouret, while dismayed that member states continue to visit Syria or invite Syria to visit them, noted that the member states, as sovereign nations, were not bound by the informal agreement reached last year that HiRep Javier Solana should be the sole voice of the EU on relations with Syria. He noted that representatives of the member usually meet or talk with him prior to the meeting the Syrians and he reiterated the EU requirements for renewed engagement with Syria: Stop interfering in Lebanon; Stop supporting Hezbollah and Hamas; Distance itself from Iran; Exchange Ambassadors with Lebanon; and Respect the border between Syria and Lebanon. He agreed that Syria has done nothing positive to merit any change in EU policy. ¶2. (C) The EU is very concerned about the situation in Lebanon, seeing no opening for peace. Hezbollah, Jouret said, is hiding behind General Aoun identifying him as their representative. This ploy, said Jouret, can give the impression the conflict is between Christians (Aoun),and Sunnis as opposed to a conflict between the Shias and the Sunnis. He said Arab League Secretary General Moussa accomplished nothing on his recent visit to Beirut. ¶3. (C/NF) Jouret said he visited Damascus in December to explore the possibility of an EU border monitoring mission in Syria, The Syrians would have been very happy to accept border monitoring equipment, but were not interested in having EU observers or trainers. Asked how the Spanish reacted to this, Jouret said he was not quite so blunt with the Spanish, but simply said the Syrians were not yet ready for such a project. Jouret had always been skeptical of Syrian sincerity on willingness to accept such a mission, but the Spanish proposal had to be explored. (COMMENT: Several PSC ambassadors have told us separately that the border mission is not currently on their agenda. END COMMENT). ¶4. (C/NF) The EU will be more engaged in Iraq this year, Jouret said, noting that they "may be" developing a strategy paper. Although nothing has been decided yet, he said, there is a possibility that HiRep Solana could visit Iraq. If that happened, it could lay the groundwork for more EU involvement in Iraq. He said a planned visit to Brussels by Steffan De Mistura, the UN representative in Iraq, which had already been postponed once, would help the Member States in their analysis of Iraq and in developing plans to become more involved. (See septel for results of meeting on European Commission assistance to Iraq for 2008). Murray .