SWEDISH RESPONSE: UNGA WALKOUT REDLINES

C O N F I D E N T I A L STOCKHOLM 000600 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2019 TAGS: PREL UNGA SW SUBJECT: SWEDISH RESPONSE: UNGA WALKOUT REDLINES REF: SECSTATE 97566 Classified By: Political Counselor Marc Koehler for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On September 21, Pol Counselor delivered reftel points to Andres Jato, Chief of Staff for MFA Political Director Bjorn Lyrvall. Jato replied September 22 that Lyrvall had sent him the following message: "With respect to the Political Director's meeting, we agreed on a line of policy to handle Ahmadinejad's speech, including a walk out in the event of a denial of the Holocaust or questioning Israel's right to exist." Separately PolOff delivered points to Robert Rydberg, Department Head of Middle Eastern Affairs at the MFA. ¶2. (C) Also on September 22, MFA State Secretary Frank Belfrage told DCM that the EU PolDirs have "more or less" agreed on a common approach on the Ahmadinejad speech. Attendance will be at a lower level and those in the chair will be listening "vigilantly" for anti-Semitic speech. There is a possibility that there could be a walk out in the case of either: (a) Holocaust denial; or (b) calls for annihilation of Israel. There are three European speakers following Ahmadinejad. They will be vigilant and prepared to respond to inflammatory speech, Belfrage said. There is no common approach with regards to Libya, however, but he doubted that Libyan President Qadhafi would mention anything about Lockerbie. BARZUN