UK RECEPTIVE TO DEMARCHE CONCERNING IRANIAN

S E C R E T LONDON 000584 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/RA ALLEN-CLOSE AND HEIDLBERG E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2029 TAGS: EMIN ENRG ETTC IR KNNP MNUC PARM TRGY UK WA SUBJECT: UK RECEPTIVE TO DEMARCHE CONCERNING IRANIAN ACQUISITION OF NAMIBIAN URANIUM REF: STATE 18236 Classified By: Political Counselor Rick Mills for reasons 1.4, b, d, and e ¶1. (S) Our (USG) demarche contains "a persuasive message" to share with Namibia and HMG "should be willing" to remind the Namibian government and Rio Tinto about UNSCR 1737 prohibitions on the sale or transfer of uranium to Iran, Simon Mustard, the Head of Regional Issues in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Counter-Proliferation Department (CPD),told Poloff March 3 (ref). Mustard promised to review ref non-paper and to provide a definitive answer as soon as possible. Duncan Johnson, of the FCO's CPD Regional Issues Section, elaborated, noting that HMG had approached Rio Tinto in the past about potential transfers from Brazil and Kazakhstan. He stated that the UK had also previously approached Namibia about possible transfers to Iran, adding, without providing further detail, that "they rebuffed us." Visit London's Classified Website: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Unit ed_Kingdom LEBARON