GOI RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE URGING IRAN TO RESOLVE

S E C R E T BAGHDAD 003325 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2019 TAGS: PREL CASC PHUM PINR PTER IZ IR SUBJECT: GOI RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE URGING IRAN TO RESOLVE AMCIT CASES REF: STATE 129480 Classified By: Acting DCM Gary A. Grappo, for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (S) Acting DCM delivered demarche points contained reftel to FM Zebari on December 23 (other topics covered septel). Zebari said he had discussed the issue of the Amcits being held by Iran in some detail with Iranian FM Mottaki on the margins of the Manama dialogue earlier in December. Zebari recounted that he had urged the Iranian government to release the six Amcit hostages and offered the good offices of the Iraqi government if the Iranians wanted the assistance in dealing with the issue with the U.S. He said he made the point that these individuals were clearly not intelligence agents, and they should be released on humanitarian grounds. According to Zebari, Mottaki was noncommittal on the latter point and had spoken elliptically in addressing the issue of the hostages. ¶2. (S) Mottaki had seemed to indicate that the Iranians wanted some sort of "hostage exchange" and would not release the six until the U.S. had released several Iranians it was holding. Zebari told A/DCM the Iranians believed that among those the U.S. was detaining -- or that they held the U.S. responsible for detaining -- was an Iranian nuclear scientist whom the Saudi authorities had initially detained. Acting DCM said he was unaware of any Iranians held by the U.S. and asked whether Zebari had the names of such people, which Zebari committed to obtaining. The FM noted that the Iranians had attempted the same gambit with the British and the French. According to Zebari, the Iranian government intended to try the three hikers currently in Iranian custody, mounting a "political show trial." FORD