CLUSTER MUNITIONS WORKING GROUP

S E C R E T STATE 034247

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2018
TAGS: IS MARR MCAP PINS PREL
SUBJECT: CLUSTER MUNITIONS WORKING GROUP

Classified By: PM DAS FRANK RUGGIERO REASONS 1.4 (B,D)


1. (U) ACTION REQUEST: Request Embassy Tel Aviv pass the
following at paragraph 2 as a nonpaper to appropriate
officials within the Government of Israel,s Ministry of
Defense.


2. (S) Begin Nonpaper:

(SECRET//REL ISRAEL)

The U.S. and Israel agreed at the March 20, 2008 Joint
Political Military Group (JPMG) meeting to create a Cluster
Munitions Working Group (CMWG) to review classified
agreements on cluster munitions (CM) and map the way ahead on
future CM usage.

The United States proposes holding the first CMWG meeting on
May 1, 2008 in Tel Aviv. The U.S. delegation will be lead by
the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security
and Defense Trade Controls in the Bureau of Political
Military Affairs. It will include representatives from the
State Department,s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the
Office of the Legal Advisor, the Office of the Secretary of
Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency, and U.S. European Command.

The United States proposes the meeting be comprised of four
90-minute sessions that would address:

(1)How Israel used CM in the 2006 conflict with Hizballah;
the results of its internal investigation and the Winograd
report; and what steps Israel has taken to address its use of
CM in areas normally inhabited by civilians, including
provision of targeting and other relevant information to the
United Nations in order to facilitate clearance operations.

(2)What the classified agreements between our two countries
entail and how they should be implemented.

(3)What operational circumstances and implications have
emerged from the 2006 conflict and current U.S. legislation
on CM, including Israel,s access to U.S. War Reserve Stocks.

(4)What types of CM is Israel developing, and how can we
clarify U.S. policy on CM exports to Israel.

To address appropriate details of these issues, the United
States envisions a future meeting between U.S. Department of
Defense and Israeli Ministry of Defense officials to discuss
how Israel will use CM in the future. This group could
report to the CMWG.

END NONPAPER


3. (U) POCs for this request are PM/RSAT: Brooke Milton
Kurtz, 202-736-4035, MiltonKurtzBE@state.sgov.gov; and John
Schwenk, 202-647-2558, SchwenkJA@state.sgov.gov.
RICE