UN COMPREHENSIVE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000328 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR L/LEI ANDREW KELLER AND MAEGAN CONKLIN E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2018 TAGS: PREL PTER FR SUBJECT: UN COMPREHENSIVE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM: FRANCE SUPPORTS THE U.S. POSITION ON UPCOMING DISCUSSIONS REF: STATE 16075 Classified By: A/DCM JOSIAH ROSENBLATT FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (C) French MFA contacts told us that France supports the U.S. position on the upcoming UN discussions on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, and, like the U.S., intends to avoid providing a formal response to the Greek proposal until after having the benefit of considering the OIC's views on the acceptability of that text. France does not believe that the OIC will support the Greek text, and is therefore hoping to use the OIC veto to end difficult EU discussions on the Greek proposal. The MFA's international organizations (IO) division said that France is strongly opposed to the Greek text, and has taken an equally strong position against the text in the EU. "The Greek proposal is legally ambiguous and threatens the whole of international humanitarian law and the fight against terrorism," Salina Grenet, the MFA IO desk officer for terrorism, told us. France continues to support the current text (not the 2007 Greek language) as proposed by the Special Coordinator, but is aware that the OIC will not support this language. ¶2. (C) Grenet explained that while France, along with several other EU members, is blocking a unified EU position on the Greek text, the GOF hopes that overall negotiations on the Convention will continue. France still believes that the adoption of the Convention would be a useful achievement. Grenet added that it would be helpful for the U.S. and France to hold further informal bilateral expert discussions on the issue with the hope of finding an agreed position that might eventually be acceptable to the OIC. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm PEKALA