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

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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.

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SUMMARY
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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.

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SEARCH FOR A DIRECTOR-GENERAL -- THE WEAKEST LINKS?
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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.

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IRAQ UPDATES
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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.

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WEOG
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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.

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BUDGET CONSULTATIONS
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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