(C) GOLDSTONE REPORT: DANES SEEKING EU CONSENSUS

C O N F I D E N T I A L COPENHAGEN 000489 SIPDIS STATE FOR IO/HR:KRUCHOWSKI, IO/UNP:MORRISON, NEA/IPA:GIAUQUE USUN FOR ELLEN GERMAIN E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM MARR SENV SUBJECT: (C) GOLDSTONE REPORT: DANES SEEKING EU CONSENSUS REF: STATE 112828 Classified By: (U) Ambassador Laurie S. Fulton; reason 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Pol-EconCouns delivered reftel demarche November 3 to Michael Lund Jeppesen, Head of MFA's Mideast Department, and Henrik Kiil, Head of Section in that department who is the action officer on the Goldstone Report. After studying the non-paper and consulting with Kiil, Jeppesen offered the following informal response: - MFA had received a description of the draft UNGA resolution but had not yet seen the text itself. It reportedly did not contain any "attacks" on Israel and was therefore an improvement on the Human Rights Council resolution. - Denmark was hoping for an EU consensus position. There would be a meeting of EU missions in New York later in the day. - He saw no major disagreement with the U.S. position. Denmark agreed the Goldstone Report should be handled within the HRC in Geneva, not in New York. He distinguished between "forwarding" the report to the UNSC or ICC and calling for those bodies to take action (implying the former was unobjectionable). - Denmark had "high confidence" in Israel's ability to investigate and take appropriate follow-up action, but the investigations needed to be seen to be independent in order to be credible - i.e. internal IDF investigations would not suffice. - On time limits, Denmark saw three months as unrealistic, but investigations should not be allowed to drag on indefinitely. The EU was expecting a call for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to report on these investigations in March. - On a meeting of the parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the MFA Legal Advisor's view was that such a meeting in itself can do no harm. - Denmark would not support sanctions against Israel. ¶2. (SBU) Jeppesen added that FM Per Stig Moeller would be addressing parliament November 4 on the Goldstone Report, in reply to a question. FULTON