TURKEY ON IAEA REPORTS ON IRAN AND SYRIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000841 SIPDIS ISN/RA FOR NEPHEW, IO/T FOR DETEMPLE, EUR/SE FOR MARSH E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/17/2019 TAGS: KNNP PARM IAEA MNUC TRGY SUBJECT: TURKEY ON IAEA REPORTS ON IRAN AND SYRIA REF: SECSTATE 60334 Classified By: Pol-Mil Counselor Anthony Godfrey, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) The Ambassador met with MFA Undersecretary Ertugrul Apakan on Jun 12 and made reftel demarche, urging support for the IAEA reports on Iran and Syria. The Ambassador pressed for Turkey to make a strong national statement, calling on Iran and Syria to cooperate in a transparent manner with the IAEA investigations. MFA Deputy Director General Ahmet Gun told us on June 16 that Hakan Fidan, Turkey's IAEA Governor, had received instructions based on the Ambassador's intervention, but cautioned that in its national statement, Turkey would continue to avoid language which would limit its ability to engage with Iran, especially at a time when there were indications that Tehran was in the process of preparing a response to the P5 1 offer. As usual, Turkey would not align itself with the EU statement, but would express concern for the lack of progress in the investigations in Iran and Syria, would call for both states to support the IAEA and would make a specific call to both Syria and Iran to provide transparency to IAEA investigators. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey JEFFREY