ICELAND TO MAINTAIN CURRENT ASSSITANCE LEVELS TO

UNCLAS REYKJAVIK 000135 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR EUR DAS GARBER, S/SRAP FOR KAREN HANRAHAN, SCA/A FOR ARIELLA VIEHE, EUR/RPM FOR AARON COPE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL NATO MOPS MARR AF IC SUBJECT: ICELAND TO MAINTAIN CURRENT ASSSITANCE LEVELS TO AFGHANISTAN REF: STATE 74362 ¶1. (SBU) Emboffs delivered points contained in reftel to Greta Gunnarsdottir, head of the International and Security Affairs Directorate at the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on August ¶5. Gunnarsdottir thanked Emboffs for the information and responded that the GOI intends to maintain its current level of support for the mission in Afghanistan. ¶2. (SBU) Gunnarsdottir said that, due to the difficult economic situation in Iceland, the GOI is cutting back on many of its global peace keeping projects. She offered assurances, however, that Afghanistan would remain a top priority for the Icelandic Government. She also suggested that the seven or eight Icelanders who are currently serving in Afghanistan would remain in their positions for the foreseeable future. KLOPFENSTEIN