SLOVENIA PREPARES "PARACHUTE" CANDIDATE IN CASE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000008 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2019 TAGS: PREL IAEA PINR KNNP SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA PREPARES "PARACHUTE" CANDIDATE IN CASE OF IAEA DEADLOCK FOR DIRECTOR GENERAL REF: VIENNA 002 Classified By: Ambassador Yousif B. Ghafari, reasons 1.4(b,d) ¶1. (C) Ambassador Ernest Petric, an experienced diplomat and former member of the IAEA board of governors, called on Ambassador Ghafari on January 9 to inform him that Slovenia would nominate him as a candidate for IAEA Director General if the first two rounds of voting ended with a deadlock between the current two candidates, Japan's Yukiya Amano and South Africa's Abdul Minty. Petric confirmed that Slovenia supports Amano and would be satisfied should Amano win. He mentioned that he would quietly inform a few other ambassadors in Ljubljana of his candidacy, and Slovenia would begin working to get joint U.S. and E.U. support for Petric as an alternative if neither Amano nor Minty appeared likely to gain enough support (reftel). Petric cited the advice current IAEA DG ElBaradei had given him about acting quickly in case of a deadlock, and said that Slovenia was "ready to parachute" Petric in as a candidate in the spring if needed. ¶2. (C) Petric, who is 72, told the Ambassador that if he became a candidate he would make it clear that he would only consider serving for one term. Petric is well and favorably known to us, but at this point we have little basis on which to judge his suitability for the IAEA position. GHAFARI