Greek Views on September 2009 GAERC, Sri Lanka

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 001467 SIPDIS DEPT PASS TO SCA/INSB:ANTHONY RENZULLI AMEMBASSY ANKARA PASS TO AMCONSUL ADANA AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL LEIPZIG AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PASS TO AMEMBASSY PODGORICA AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY ATHENS PASS TO AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/09/11 TAGS: PGOV PREL EUN GR CE SUBJECT: Greek Views on September 2009 GAERC, Sri Lanka REF: A) ALESSANDRO NARDI EMAIL 7/16/2009; B) STATE 92641 C) ATHENS 1331 CLASSIFIED BY: David Muehlke, Political Officer; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) On September 10, Poloff discussed ref A points on U.S. positions on the September 14-15 GAERC with Niki Kamba, European Correspondent in the MFA A11 Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) Division. Kamba that Iran and Afghanistan would be the only two external relations items on the September GAERC agenda, but Sri Lanka might be discussed in October's meeting. On September 11, Poloff raised ref B points on Sri Lanka with Ambassador Charalampos Dafaranos, Director of the MFA A10 Directorate for Asia and Oceania. Dafaranos said he fully agreed with U.S. points on Sri Lanka and would support EU action and engagement along the same lines. ¶2. (C) On Iran, Kamba said the GAERC's discussion would take place during dinner on September 14. Iran had been briefly raised during the September 4-5 Gymnich in Stockholm, but Kamba noted that the EU was in "listening mode" while awaiting the contents of recent Iranian proposals to the P5-plus-1. Greece itself was in "wait-and-see mode" and would likely follow along with the bigger players' decision. Kamba said the Greek government continued to prefer any action on Iran be led by the UNSC, but said that if China and Russia continued to play blocking roles, Greece would not object to EU-led sanctions. ¶3. (C) On Afghanistan, Kamba said that Greece felt the EU should refrain from making any strong statements yet on controversial issues such as election results. She predicted the EU would first see how the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) handled the allegations of fraud and any possible recount, before passing judgment. Afghanistan was widely discussed during the Gymnich, Kamba noted, and the EU felt that the first priority was installing a credible, legitimate government; next priorities encompassed capacity building, good governance, rule of law, and human rights. Kamba said Greece fully supported these efforts and had placed economic assistance to Afghanistan as a top development assistance priority. Kamba added that the October GAERC would review a European Commission strategy paper on Afghanistan that was currently being formulated. (See ref C for reporting on Greek contributions to Afghanistan.) ¶4. (C) On Sri Lanka, Darafanos said he fully agreed with U.S. efforts to pressure the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) to address the internally displaced persons (IDP) crisis. Darafanos expressed interest in how the "major EU" countries responded to USG demarches on Sri Lanka, and indicated that Greece would follow along with any EU consensus for increased engagement and pressure on the GSL. Speckhard