SPANISH COMMERCIAL COUNSELOR INQUIRES ABOUT ORION

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 000345

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA, EEB/ESC/TFS
NSC FOR SHAPIRO/MCDERMOTT
COMMERCE FOR BIS/SONDERMAN
MADRID FOR DUDLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/14/2019
TAGS: EAIR ETRD ETTC PGOV PREL SP SY
SUBJECT: SPANISH COMMERCIAL COUNSELOR INQUIRES ABOUT ORION
AIR

REF: A. MADRID 462

B. SECSTATE 47933

C. MADRID 439

D. MADRID 413

E. SECSTATE 41098

F. DAMASCUS 295

Classified By: Pol/Econ Counselor Tim Pounds for reasons 1.4(b,d)


1. (SBU) Beirut-based Spanish Counselor for Economic and
Commercial Affairs Miguel Iriso requested a meeting on May 14
to discuss Orion Air's situation with Post. Iriso said his
home Ministry was "surprised and confused" that U.S.
diplomats from Embassy Madrid had contacted Orion Air
executives directly rather than first going through the
Spanish Foreign Ministry with their concerns. Econoff
explained to Iriso that Washington had only learned of Orion
Air's contract with Syrian Pearl Airlines a few days before
the company was due to deliver the aircraft to Syria.
Consequently, Washington had chosen to contact Orion Air
directly in an effort to warn the company that it might
expose itself to legal action for violating U.S. sanctions
law before any aircraft had been delivered. Sharing a
sanitized copy of Embassy Madrid's talking points from ref E,
Econoff explained that Orion Air had been encouraged to seek
an advisory opinion from the Commerce Department's Bureau of
Industry and Security (BIS) before executing the contract.


2. (SBU) Iriso then asked for an explanation of how a
wet-lease of British-manufactured aircraft might violate U.S.
sanctions law, and what potential ramifications may result
from the issuance of the Temporary Denial Order (TDO). After
briefing Iriso on the U.S. trade sanctions regime, we shared
a copy of the TDO talking points from ref B that Embassy
Madrid had delivered to Orion Air on May 12 (ref A).


3. (C) Econoff explained that Syrian Pearl had previously
approached other airlines and aircraft manufacturers, such as
Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier, with offers to purchase or
lease aircraft. In most cases, the potential supplier had
sought an opinion -- at least informally from Post if not an
official advisory opinion from BIS -- before proceeding with
a contract. Consequently, the large aircraft companies who
had opted not to contract with Syrian Pearl out of respect
for our sanctions regime were likely to be watching our
response to Orion Air's decision. Seeming satisfied, Iriso
thanked us for the explanation and said that the Spanish MFA
had so far only heard "one side of the story" from the
company.
CONNELLY