CWC: WRAP UP FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 14- 18,

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000566 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCA, L/NPV, IO/MPR, SECDEF FOR OSD/GSA/CN,CP> JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC COMMERCE FOR BIS (BROWN, DENYER AND CRISTOFARO) NSC FOR LUTES WINPAC FOR WALTER E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/18/2019 TAGS: IZ PARM PREL CWC SUBJECT: CWC: WRAP UP FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 14- 18, 2009 REF: A. THE HAGUE 437 ¶B. THE HAGUE 518 ¶C. THE HAGUE 557 ¶D. THE HAGUE 549 Classified By: Janet E. Beik for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) This is CWC-54-09 ¶1. (U) This is an action request -- see para 5. -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The only official meeting at OPCW this week was the budget consultation on September 17. The Western European and Others Group (WEOG) held its regular weekly meeting on September 15. Meanwhile, multiple receptions, social events and corridor conversations busily buzz around the main issue for the next Executive Council session in October -- the selection of a new Director-General. -------------- -------------- SEARCH FOR A DIRECTOR-GENERAL -- THE WEAKEST LINKS? -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) The Executive Council Chairperson, Jorge Lomonaco (Mexico),has completed his planned first round of consultations and "confessional meetings" with members of the Council and has identified large blocks of support for the top contenders and the lowest ranked candidates. He has kept confidences and not named any names, but he told Delrep privately on September 16 that there is surprising convergence of views across all the regional groups when delegations express support for more than one candidate; the regional solidarity is not as deep as might appear in public comments. Lomonaco noted that "one candidate" believes himself at the top and is "actually about number 4" (Del comment: We believe this reference is to the Algerian Ambassador. End comment). ¶4. (C ) If, after Lomonaco talks to the lower ranked candidates or their national delegations and the candidates do not choose to withdraw voluntarily, Lomonaco will call a meeting toward the end of September and conduct a secret straw poll to verify his assessment of the rankings and to reduce the seven candidates to a more manageable number (ideally four or fewer) going into the Council session in October. ¶5. (SBU) Action requested: Please provide guidance on the USG's rank order of the seven Director-General candidates (numbers one to seven) by September 28 in case an EC consultation on this issue is called on short notice. ¶6. (C ) At a luncheon hosted by the Dutch Ambassador on September 16 for European and Western Group members of the EC that do not have DG candidates (Australia, France, Italy, Macedonia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, U.S.),discussion centered on strategy for narrowing the field of five western candidates so as not to split their support. The Spanish Ambassador stated strongly that western countries should stop saying all are good candidates and begin to indicate that, while all the candidates are "qualified," some are more suited to the leadership role than others. There was general agreement that Algerian Ambassador Dani will not withdraw voluntarily, but several participants noted that his support is primarily the public expression of the groups' endorsements that would not hold up in either a secret ballot or through multiple rounds of choices. ¶7. (C) European Ambassadors and delegates acknowledged that the European Union will not choose among its three candidates, and all agreed that WEOG should not be pressed to choose among its strong slate of candidates for a single WEOG candidate. The luncheon delegations differed, however, on timing when the difficult choices among strong candidates needs to happen; some advised immediately, and others were willing to wait for at least the first round of the Chairperson's consultations to try to narrow the field. All agreed on the need for rapid response and coordination if the Chairperson's soundings do not result in the withdrawal of candidates before the Council meeting in October (13-16). ¶8. (C) Delreps' conversations with Ambassadors and Delegates from Asia and Africa (including China, India, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Morocco) echo the analysis of western delegations that, while many African and Asian delegations will initially -- and publicly -- support their respective regional candidates, they are also prepared to support second choices, particularly in a secret ballot process. Latin American (GRULAC) delegations are taking a neutral public role and voicing strong support for the Chairperson's consultations. The Spanish Ambassador noted that GRULAC members, including Cuba, will organize their collective support around one of the strongest candidates (which one remains to be seen). ¶9. (C) The candidate least often mentioned in any discussion of possibilities of later match-ups, and the most often mentioned in terms of other options outside OPCW is Ambassador Thalmann (Switzerland). The candidate mentioned most often as having given the weakest performance in the July presentations is Ambassador Sudjanan (Indonesia). However, unlike the popular British TV quiz show "The Weakest Link," delegations do not expect most of the candidates to quietly walk off the set when identified by their peers as the weakest contestants. DDG John Freeman (himself the UK candidate) told Delrep that WEOG will have to make the tough choices among friends. -------------- IRAQ UPDATES -------------- 10.(SBU)Iraqi Delegate, Muhannad Al-Miahi, shared that a senior-level meeting of the Asia Group members convened on September 17 for the purpose of discussing EC membership. Presently there are more interested delegations than there are vacancies within the group. Ambassador Banaa presented the case for Iraq's membership. According to Al-Miahi the presentation was well-received and several delegations voiced support for Iraq's cause. Another meeting is scheduled for early October to continue the debate. The Iraqi delegation continues to solicit support from within and outside the group. 11.(C) Director-General Pfirter told Delrep September 15 that he does not plan to release the reports from the TS review of U.S. and UK documents on recovered munitions in Iraq. He will include the visits in his statement to the EC. When Delrep noted that South Africa is actively pursuing a working group to discuss future handling of Qworking group to discuss future handling of recovered CW in a non-member State, Pfirter saw little point to such a pursuit and little interest among Council members. ¶12. (C) On the question of security for the TS visit to Iraq planned for this month, Pfirter said the visit would have to be postponed. He had phoned the UN representative in Baghdad, who is reassessing security measures following the recent bombings at the Foreign Ministry, as well as the Iraqi Ambassador, who advised him not to allow a visit without international (U.S.) protection. He acknowledged that the Iraqi Ambassador in The Hague is often not on the same line as the authorities in Baghdad, but he (Pfirter) must proceed from his official channels (the Iraqi Representation in The Hague). Pfirter's chief concern and his ultimate responsibility is for the safety of OPCW staff under his direction, and he said he does not yet have confidence that everything possible is being done to ensure their safety. -------------- WEOG -------------- ¶13. (SBU) During the weekly meeting of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) on September 15 chaired by Coordinator Ruth Surkau (Germany), discussion focused on the previous week's industry cluster and budget consultations. At the end of the meeting, Turkish Delegate Ererdem announced that there will be a workshop on industry issues in Istanbul on September 24-25; approximately 24 participants are expected in addition to attendees from Turkey and the Technical Secretariat (TS). (Del note: Delreps later learned that Egypt will send two participants to the Istanbul workshop; also, Turkish DG candidate Ahmet Uzumcu is anticipated to attend part of the workshop. End note.) ¶14. (SBU) Low Concentrations Facilitator Giuseppe Cornacchia (Italy) gave an overview of his consultation on September 8 (ref B). He noted that there is no support for Russia's suggestion to split the three Schedule 2A/2A* chemicals. On the Canadian proposal tabled on September 8, Cornacchia referred to it as a remake of the previous facilitator's 2006 draft re-cast in a different context, and he described the essence of the proposal as eliminating any concentration limit above the verification threshold. Dutch Delegate Gosens said that the Netherlands supports the Canadian proposal, and she expressed her concern that politically the low concentration issue detracts from the debate on other chemical production facilities (OCPFs). ¶15. (SBU) British Delegate Wolstenholme said that the UK can likely accept the Canadian proposal, noting that the 10% limit suggested is not ideal but provides for the UK's desired visibility. Swiss Delegate Strub was positive about the Canadian proposal, calling it a new approach in the current consultations. French Delegate Rabia said that Paris still is considering the Canadian proposal but is optimistic that it will help reach a decision. Delrep stated that a solution is important and that a continued stalemate is counterproductive. German Ambassador Burkart said that he has received no instructions or reactions yet from Berlin; however, he noted that no PFIB site produces lower than the verification threshold meaning that the Canadian proposal will be an effective 0% threshold across the board. He Qeffective 0% threshold across the board. He suggested adding a further concentration limit for amounts above the verification threshold. In contrast to others, Burkart was not optimistic of reaching a solution and said the Canadian proposal was nothing new. ¶16. (SBU) On the industry consultation on OCPF declaration enhancements, Wolstenholme reiterated the link between low concentrations and OCPFs by saying that the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) is waiting for WEOG to live up to its non- proliferation rhetoric by agreeing on Schedule 2A/2A*, which many NAM delegations claim is of greater relevance to the CWC than OCPFs. Cornacchia noted India's strong stance on OCPF declaration enhancements and said it sees the issue as linked to that of OCPF site selection methodology. Referring to the presentation made by the TS during the consultation, Strub said that it was useful and could feed into the seminar on OCPFs being planned to coincide with the annual National Authorities meeting the week before CSP-13. Burkart raised the legal issue of implementing the proposed changes by the TS to OCPF declarations, noting that even the TS has differing views on what is possible. He said that agreement and a decision by CSP-13 is unlikely; however, he suggested that the DG could "tinker" with the current OCPF site selection (A-14) algorithm by adding a function to divide current A-14 values less than 100 (i.e., those of medium or low relevance) by various factors to further reduce their probability of selection. Burkart thought that this essentially would achieve the same result as the TS's proposed R value and could simply be done by the DG without any decision by the policy-making organs. ¶17. (SBU) On the budget, Strub, as co-facilitator for the budget, stated the agreement on the number of industry (Article VI) inspections might be less of a problem this year than it was last year because the DG's proposal for 2010 is only 2 more (210) than the agreed number for 2009 (208). Strub said that Iran claims to accept the DG's proposal but insists that inspection numbers must first be discussed in the industry cluster. Aside from the issue of Article VI inspections, Strub commented that the rest of the budget is fine and not contentious. Wolstenholme stated that the UK continues to think more OCPF inspections are necessary but will accept nothing less than the DG's proposal. Gosens said the Netherlands sees the money budgeted for inspector training as insufficient; she plans to raise the issue again with the Inspectorate Division. Surkau suggested that NAM delegations might push for more money for International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) programs as there appears to be no real increase in the ICA Division's budget aside from staff and travel costs. Strub countered that the increase in ICA is real but that the new budget format clearly shows where it is being spent. Delrep noted that travel is an important part of the outreach and support that ICA provides. ¶18. (SBU) Dutch Ambassador Lohman said that, in his capacity as Vice-Chairperson for CW Issues, he will convene informal discussions with affected and interested delegations on continued verification of converted facilities. -------------- BUDGET CONSULTATIONS -------------- ¶19. (U) The second scheduled budget meeting for Q19. (U) The second scheduled budget meeting for consideration of the Inspectorate Division was cancelled September 14 as not needed. On September 17, co-Facilitator Strub (Switzerland) convened the meeting on International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) programs. ICA Director Kalimi Mworia (Kenya) outlined the series of activities related to Assistance and Protection (Article X), Implementatiton of the Convention (Article VII), and Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Chemistry (Article XI). She emphasized that no new posts were requested in 2010 and that the Assistex exercise (planned for October 2010 in Tunisia) is a major new activity. ¶20. (U) Several delegations (Czech Republic, South Africa, Italy) raised questions on specific programs and the key performance indicators (KPIs). South African Delegate Marthinus van Schalkwyk made a point of praising the improvement in KPIs, but could not resist the temptation of noting several points for additional improvement. He also asked what percentage of the overall increase in the ICA budget (5.6%) was for the Assistex exercise. DDG Freeman responded that all but 0.8% of that increase would be for Assistex. Iranian Delegate Ali Gholampour inquired about the extent of cooperation with other international organizations, including legal agreements. The DDG replied that the Assistex exercises may require legal memoranda of understanding covering the participation by other organizations. In response to a Chinese question, Labib Sahab (Head, Budget Planning) explained the new lines of expenditure separating travel costs from other expenditures, but noted that the total for the programs was in line with last year's totals. The meeting was short and businesslike, with no apparent disagreement with the proposed allocation of ICA program funding. ¶21. (U) BEIK SENDS. LEVIN