UZBEKISTAN'S RESPONSE TO NONPROLIFERATION SANCTIONS AGAINST

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000071 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SBU DELIBERATIVE PROCESS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, ISN/CPI FOR CAROLINE RUSSELL AND CHRIS HERRINGTON AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PASS TO AMCONSUL HYDERABAD AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG E.O. 12958: DECL: 2018-12-22 TAGS: MNUC KNNP PREL PARM EFIN UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN'S RESPONSE TO NONPROLIFERATION SANCTIONS AGAINST A.Q. KHAN AND ASSOCIATES REF: a) STATE 02508 CLASSIFIED BY: Steven Prohaska, Second Secretary, P/E Office; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) On January 15, Poloff briefed Dr. Bakhrom Babayev, United Nations Desk Chief in the UN and International Organizations Department of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the imposition of sanctions on individuals and companies associated with the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network, per reftel. Babayev said that the Government of Uzbekistan's (GOU) position on this issue is similar to that of the United States Government, and pledged to inform his superiors about the sanctions. He believed the GOU would not make any decisions that are inconsistent with the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act, the Export-Import Bank Act, or Executive Orders 12938 and 13382. Babayev noted that he would welcome the delivery of a document with this information so that the Government of Uzbekistan could treat it as a working paper. ¶2. (C) Babayev also told Poloff that he had taken this position at the United Nations and International Organizations Department very recently, and had previously served for eight years as Political Counselor at Uzbekistan's Embassy in Paris. BUTCHER To view the entire SMART message, go to URL http://repository.state.sgov.gov/_layouts/OSS SearchResults.aspx?k=messageid:ae56904f-efca- 42cb-b43f-15ef6977e452