UN/IRAN SANCTIONS: CHAIRMAN DELIVERS QUARTERLY

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000254 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2018 TAGS: PARM IR UNSC MNUC ETTC KNNP SUBJECT: UN/IRAN SANCTIONS: CHAIRMAN DELIVERS QUARTERLY REPORT TO COUNCIL; SANCTIONS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES FUTURE WORK REF: STATE 27142 Classified By: MINISTER-COUNSELOR JEFFREY DELAURENTIS, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) IRAN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN REPORTS TO THE COUNCIL ¶1. (C) On March 17, Belgian PermRep and Iran Sanctions Committee Chair Johan Verbeke presented his fifth quarterly report on the Committee's work to the Security Council. From December 19 to March 17, the Committee received one report on the implementation of UNSCR 1737, bringing the total to 88 member states reporting pursuant to UNSCR 1737 and 72 reporting pursuant to UNSCR 1747. Verbeke stressed the importance of the timely submission of outstanding implementation reports and member state diligence in monitoring cargo to and from Iran, and pledged that the committee would continue to "discharge its expanded mandate carefully." ¶2. (C) USUN and Burkina Faso made statements following the Chairman's briefing. Ambassador Wolff urged member states to submit outstanding reports as soon as possible, stating, "the international community has good reason to be concerned about Iran's activities to acquire nuclear weapons capability." Ambassador Wolff also reiterated the need to support the IAEA's efforts and to continue to increase pressure on Iran while also offering a path to negotiations. Burkina Faso PermRep Kafando advocated clarifying reporting formats, suggesting that the Committee develop a standardized form to assist member states in preparing their reports. SANCTIONS COMMITTEE INFORMAL MEETING ¶3. (C) On March 18, the Iran Sanctions Committee met informally to discuss updating the Committee's guidelines to reflect the new tasks contained in UNSCR 1803. The Committee also agreed to write to the IAEA to seek an update on its implementation of paragraph 16 of UNSCR 1803, and South Africa proposed repeating the language of the Committee's August 2007 letter to the IAEA. The Chair will also send a letter to remind Member States that have not fulfilled their reporting requirements under UNSCRS 1737 and 1747 to do so. ¶4. (C) Echoing its comments from the previous day's Council meeting, Burkina Faso expressed concern that not all member states understood how to prepare implementation reports, and suggested that the Committee develop a questionnaire to assist states with reporting. China and Russia cautioned that any such guidance must fall within the Committee's mandate, and argued that providing states with a questionnaire would be outside of the Committee's purview. USUN advocated considering alternative ways to provide guidance, and noted that other committees (note: such as the North Korea Sanctions Committee) had agreed to ways of assisting states in their reporting duties. The UK and France strongly supported the idea of assisting states and stressed the need for expediency in reaching a decision on the matter, but noted that states must comply with the 60-day reporting deadline notwithstanding further Committee discussions. ¶5. (C) The Committee also agreed to the Chairman's proposal to create a consolidated list of all persons and entities listed in the annexes of UNSCRs 1737, 1747 and 1803, which will be posted on the Committee's website, and to assign permanent reference numbers to each entry. KHALILZAD