DEMARCHE RESPONSE: HUNGARY SUPPORTIVE OF U.S.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUDAPEST 000669 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN/RA JDANIEL AND ASTAKULIN. E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2019 TAGS: AORC PARM PREL KNNP IAEA EG IS HU SUBJECT: DEMARCHE RESPONSE: HUNGARY SUPPORTIVE OF U.S. POSITION AT IAEA CONFERENCE REF: STATE 94890 Classified By: EconOff: Jeffrey M. Jordan, reasons 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Emboff delivered reftel talking points to Sandor Racz, Senior Advisor to the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Section within the Hungarian Foreign Ministry's Department for Security Policy and Non-Proliferation. Racz expressed Hungary's concurrence with the U.S. position on the IAEA General Conference and promised to pass our request along to his superiors at the MFA as well as to the Conference delegation in Vienna. He noted that Hungary enjoys strong bilateral relations with Israel and would not support a Conference resolution condemning it. Furthermore, he believes it is very unlikely that such a resolution could garner the level of consensus needed to make it onto the Conference's agenda. ¶2. (C) As a participant in the IAEA Board's recent planning session for the General Conference, Racz expects the Conference to focus principally on four agenda items: Iran; Syria; North Korea; and an initiative for a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East. According to Racz, any discussion of Israel's nuclear capability will most likely occur as part of the final agenda item and be addressed in the context of a long-term WMD disarmament process that includes, but is not limited to, nuclear weapons. ¶3. (C) Racz also noted the Iranian proposal for a resolution against military strikes on nuclear facilities and said he believed that there would not be broad support for this initiative either. LEVINE