TURKEY: AMBASSADOR RAISES IRAN WITH FORMIN

S E C R E T ANKARA 000893 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2019 TAGS: PREL AROC KNNP IAEA IR TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: AMBASSADOR RAISES IRAN WITH FORMIN REF: A. UNVIE 300 ¶B. ANKARA 878 Classified By: Ambassador James F. Jeffrey for reasons 1.4 (b,c) ¶1. (S) Ambassador raised Iran with FONMIN Davutoglu and MFA U/S Apakan on the margins of a meeting February 23. Stating that we was speaking on his own and without instructions, Ambassador said that we was troubled by the Turkish statement regarding Iran at the June 15 IAEA board meeting (ref A) despite our imploring Apakan to take a tough position on the Iranian nuclear issue. The Foreign Minister's statements on Iran were also of concern (ref B). ¶2. (S) Ambassador noted that post-Iranian elections the Obama administration was obviously carefully fine tuning its position on Iran, and we know of Turkey's similar discomfort trying to calibrate public statements, especially given Turkey's status as a neighbor. But the problem was more clear-cut with the Turkish statements in the IAEA. Ambassador compared it unfavorably to the IAEA statement by the Philippines, even though it was a NAM member. Ambassador added that the Obama Administrations' approach on Iran was very similar to the policies the Turks had long advocated to us, but we needed their help on the pressing problems of Iranian nukes. ¶3. (S) Davutoglu appeared nonplussed, said that his comments about the unrest in Iran were off the cuff and taken out of context, and called attention to a current Der Spiegel article where he had stated bluntly that a nuclear Iran was not acceptable. But then, building on the &keep bridges open to Teheran8 theme we hear often here, he pointed out with satisfaction that some European embassies in Teheran (but not Turkey) had just had diplomats PNG'ed. ¶4. (S) Ambassador responded that Turkey as a recent democracy itself should be careful about siding with an oppressive regime rather than protesters, and another approach ) like remaining silent ) could have worked better. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey JEFFREY