CROATIAN PERMREP JURICA DISCUSSES KOSOVO, IRAN AND

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000170 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL UNSC HR UNMIK GG IR SUBJECT: CROATIAN PERMREP JURICA DISCUSSES KOSOVO, IRAN AND GEORGIA ¶1. (SBU) Croatian Permrep Jurica assured Ambassador Khalilzad on February 21 that Croatia's positions in the Security Council will generally be in line with those of the U.S. and the mainstream of the EU. ¶2. (SBU) Khalilzad thanked Jurica for Croatia's helpful statement in the February 18 public meeting on Kosovo and asked how soon Croatia would be ready to recognize the new state. Jurica said Kosovo is a difficult issue for Croatia because of its border with both Serbia and Bosnia's Republika Srpska, adding that Croatia's Serb minority wants the Croatian government to be prudent. However, Jurica said Croatia would recognize Kosovo within one or two weeks. Khalilzad responded that we hoped Croatia could recognize Kosovo soon. ¶3. (SBU) Jurica said Croatia has no difficulties with the draft resolution on Iran, including the paragraph related to cargo. He said that his predecessor had not received permission from Zagreb to join the Security Council's working group on Georgia as the MFA believed joining both the Balkans and Georgia groups might complicate relations with Russia. Jurica said he had convinced the MFA to allow Croatia to join the Georgia group soon. KHALILZAD