Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BERLIN331
2009-03-20 12:42:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Berlin
Cable title:  

IRANIAN MAJLES DELEGATION TALKS REGIONAL ISSUES

Tags:  PREL PTER SNAR PHUM GM IR AF IS GZ WE 
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O 201242Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3631
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0615
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDIR/IRAN RPO DUBAI
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0393
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0695
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000331 

SIPDIS, NEA/IR, EUR/CE, S/CT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2019
TAGS: PREL PTER SNAR PHUM GM IR AF IS GZ WE
SUBJECT: IRANIAN MAJLES DELEGATION TALKS REGIONAL ISSUES
DURING BERLIN VISIT

REF: BERLIN 165

BERLIN 00000331 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Jeffrey Rathke
for reasons 1.4(b)/(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000331

SIPDIS, NEA/IR, EUR/CE, S/CT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2019
TAGS: PREL PTER SNAR PHUM GM IR AF IS GZ WE
SUBJECT: IRANIAN MAJLES DELEGATION TALKS REGIONAL ISSUES
DURING BERLIN VISIT

REF: BERLIN 165

BERLIN 00000331 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Jeffrey Rathke
for reasons 1.4(b)/(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Iran Majles Foreign Affairs Committee
chair Alaeddin Boroujerdi led a Majles delegation visit to
Berlin March 4-6, meeting with Interior Minister Schaeuble,
as well as a variety of senior Chancellery officials and
Bundestag MPs. Boroujerdi expressed Iran's interest in
increased cooperation on Afghanistan but was critical of
NATO's current approach. He was pleased by the U.S. intent
to invite Iran to the March 31 Afghanistan conference,
calling it a "good signal." On Israel-Palestine issues, he
maintained the Iranian hardline approach; he also expressed
concern at Germany's position on the MEK and PJAK. Contacts
say German interlocutors challenged a number of hardline
Iranian positions, with Schaueble being particularly blunt in
his criticism of Iran's stance on the nuclear issue and
Israel. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) A Majles delegation led by Iranian Foreign Affairs
Committee chair Alaeddin Boroujerdi met March 4-6 with a
variety of German government and Bundestag interlocutors. In
addition to meeting Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble,
Boroujerdi also met with Chancellery Intelligence Chief
Fritsche as well as key Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee
members Ruprecht Polenz (CDU),Eckart von Klaeden (CDU),and
Rolf Muetzenich (SPD). According to press reports,
Boroujerdi was joined by fellow Majles MPs Fatemeh Alia,
Seyyed Ali Aghazadeh, and Ahmad Avaie. In separate
conversations, Post contacts affiliated with the Foreign
Affairs Committee, Interior Ministry, and Chancellery have
provided meeting readouts.


3. (C) POSITIVE IRANIAN REACTION TO CONFERENCE INVITATION,
BUT QUESTIONS REMAIN ON U.S. POLICY: German-Iranian
Parliamentary Friendship Committee chair and SPD MP Rolf
Muetzenich told PolOff that Boroujerdi had called Secretary
Clinton's intent to invite Iran to the March 31 Afghanistan

conference "interesting" and thought that Iran would be
clever to accept. Boroujerdi told Muetzenich that in his
personal opinion, the invitation was a good signal from the
U.S. Inquiring about German views of the Obama
Administration, Boroujerdi told Muetzenich that Iran does not
yet have a complete picture of U.S. policy, and is instead
trying to piece together isolated USG statements. Muetzenich
commented that he believes Boroujerdi belongs to the circle
of pragmatic hardliners around Majles Speaker and former
nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (for more on Larijani's
recent positions, see reftel).


4. (C) FOCUS ON AFGHANISTAN: Boroujerdi focused largely on
Afghanistan and adhered closely to the normal IRIG script by
combining calls for increased cooperation with stark
criticism of NATO efforts. Boroujerdi underscored Iran's
efforts on Afghanistan, particularly on counternarcotics as
drugs make their way from Afghanistan to Europe via Iran.
According to a CDU staffer who attended the Majles
delegation's meeting with the Foreign Affairs committee,
Boroujerdi told interlocutors that 3400 Iranian soldiers have
been killed on the Afghan-Iranian border and attributed these
deaths to the drug trade. Boroujerdi added that the Iranian
MFA, like the U.S. and Germany, has expanded its Afghanistan
team but did not indicate that a special representative
position had been created. German contacts have commented
that counternarcotics appears to them to be the clearest
avenue for increased cooperation with Iran. According to a
Chancellery contact, Germany is willing to offer Iran support
in addressing the counternarcotics problem, calling this type
of support as "a door through which we can walk" to address
other issues.


5. (C) Boroujerdi claimed the current NATO approach has
strengthened the Taliban, a point on which Bundestag
interlocutors challenged him. Boroujerdi told Foreign
Affairs committee members that NATO needs to counter the
perception that it is an occupying power, and demonstrate
that "it will not be there forever." He also criticized
attempts to differentiate between different factions of the
Taliban: "there are no good Taliban", declared Boroujerdi.


6. (C) GERMAN INTERLOCUTORS CRITICIZE IRANIAN HARDLINE
STANCE ON ISRAEL, PUT BALL IN IRAN'S COURT: On

BERLIN 00000331 002.2 OF 002


Israeli-Palestinian issues, Boroujerdi had a hard line,
telling the Bundestag Foreign Affairs committee that not
inviting Iran to the February Sharm el-Sheikh conference had
been a "grave error." Boroujerdi added that reconstruction
in Gaza is "impossible" without Hamas, as no long-term
solution is possible if certain groups are left out. When
challenged by a Greens Party Foreign Affairs Committee MP
about Hamas's refusal to renounce violence, Boroujerdi called
for all Palestinians to be given the right of return and
called for a "free referendum" under UN observation. Foreign
Affairs Committee Chair Ruprecht Polenz told Boroujerdi that
such demands are an attempt to roll back history and that
Iran is isolated in its position, as Arab countries have
accepted the Arab Peace Plan. Similarly, Interior Minister
Schaeuble turned down Boroujerdi's invitation to visit Iran,
noting that while he would like to visit, the current
political situation does not allow him to do so until Iran
changes its position on the nuclear issue and recognizes
Israel's right to exist. Muetzenich told PolOff he had also
raised a number of German concerns with Boroujerdi, ranging
from new IRIG statements denying the Holocaust to the
continuing persecution of Iran's Bahai community.


7. (C) COUNTERTERRORISM: MEK AND PJAK: Boroujerdi also
raised the presence of Mujaheddin-e Khalgh (MEK) and the
PKK-affiliated PJAK in Germany at both the Interior Ministry
and the Chancellery. Boroujerdi told Schaeuble that Germany
is not doing enough to combat the two terrorist organizations
despite Iran providing Germany information on the groups.
Schaeuble told Boroujerdi that Germany is unwilling to
extradite the PJAK's self-proclaimed leader, Abdulrahman
Hajji Ahmadi, who is a German citizen. Schaeuble also told
Boroujerdi that while both the MEK and PJAK are under
observation by German law enforcement agencies, the two
groups have not committed prosecutable deeds with evidence
that would stand up in court.


8. (C) COMMENT: Boroujerdi's positions indicate the
existence of an Iranian openness for dialogue on Afghanistan,
but that all discussions will be accompanied by a good deal
of "anti-imperialist" sloganeering--a line similar to that
which his fellow pragmatic hardliner Larijani took at the
Munich Security Conference (reftel). Far more difficult are
Israel-Palestine issues, where Boroujerdi's message is
largely identical to those of the hardest elements of the
Iranian ruling elite. Based on the variety of reports, it
seems German interlocutors were more willing to push back on
controversial topics than in the past.
Koenig