CZECH REPUBLIC DECLINES REQUEST FOR TEMPORARY

S E C R E T PRAGUE 000036

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR ISN/RA JODY DANIEL AND NEA/I-PM PETER EVANS
DOE/NNSA FOR JO ANNA SELLEN
NSC FOR MARY ALICE HAYWARD AND MATTHIAS MITMAN
BAGHDAD FOR TODD SCHWARTZ

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/21/2018
TAGS: PARM PREL ECON ENRG EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC DECLINES REQUEST FOR TEMPORARY
STORAGE OF IRAQI URANIUM

REF: A. 07 PRAGUE 1291

B. 07 STATE 165046

Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Mike Dodman for
Reasons 1.4 B&D


1. (S) Econoff met with Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Head of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Unit Pavel
Klucky January 22 for response to the December 11 demarche
requesting temporary storage of Iraqi uranium in the Czech
Republic (Refs A & B). Despite wide inter-agency support for
this non-proliferation project, the Czech Minister of Foreign
Affairs has rejected the request for political reasons. On
the margins of a private meeting with the Ambassador January
23, Schwarzenberg stood by his decision, explaining that it
would be political suicide for the Green Party and thus for
the current coalition government to take on this project.
(COMMENT: Schwarzenberg is an independent but the Green Party
nominated him for the office. His political calculation is
based on the fact that the Green Party is under attack from
much of its grassroots for continued participation in the
center-right government, most importantly for their
willingness to consider the U.S. proposal for a missile
defense radar in the Czech Republic, and for not protesting
more actively the government's consideration of increasing
reliance on nuclear-generated power. Schwarzenberg has proven
repeatedly to be a reliable honest broker on such questions,
and post finds his analysis credible. Since the Ambassador
has already raised this directly with the Foreign Minister,
we consider the Czech reply as final. END COMMENT.)


2. (S) Klucky had initially believed the technical
requirements would be the most difficult part of the request.
However, he found out that it would be relatively easy with
existing infrastructure to accomplish via a simple commercial
contract. He even discovered that there was precedence for
this kind of a project in the Czech Republic involving
another country (NOTE: he did not specify which country. END
NOTE). Klucky lamented the Foreign Minister's decision
because he believes this is a missed opportunity for
non-proliferation, and advised that going through the IAEA
may be the next best solution. He believes that the IAEA
approaching a group of plausible countries may be more
effective than the USG approaching one country at a time.
Despite this advice, Klucky admitted that the same request to
the Czech Republic from the IAEA would not likely change the
Foreign Minister's decision. Klucky expressed interest in
knowing how the USG plans to proceed.
Graber