CWC: WRAP-UP FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 19-23, 2009

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000059

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 (ROBERTS AND DENYER)
NSC FOR FLY
WINPAC FOR WALTER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2019
TAGS: AG IZ PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CWC: WRAP-UP FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 19-23, 2009

REF: A. THE HAGUE 40

B. BEIK - ISN/CB E-MAIL 1/9/2009 IRANIAN NOTE
VERBALE ON CSP PROCEEDINGS

C. FERGUSON - ROBINSON E-MAIL 1/19/2009 DEL
GUIDANCE ON IRAQ

Classified By: Janet E. Beik for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)

This is CWC-02-09

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SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) The Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons is slowly returning to life after
the holidays, with the first informal meetings this
year of the Western European and Others Group
(WEOG) on January 20, and Article X on January 22.
Delreps also met with the Algerian delegate to
discuss plans for a counter-terrorism conference
this spring in Algeria, and with Secretariat
officials and other delegations to discuss current
issues.

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WEOG MEETING
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2. (SBU) The Western European and Others Group
(WEOG) reconvened its regular weekly meetings on
20 January with a robust agenda focusing on the
recent Iranian Note Verbale and preparations for
Executive Council (EC)-55. WEOG Facilitator Ruth
Surkau (Germany) reported on her meeting with OPCW
Legal Adviser Santiago Onate on the Iranian paper
(C-13/NAT.10) that questioned the validity of the
Chairman's report of the Conference of the States
Parties (CSP) and that implied none of the
Conference decisions were final without a consensus
report. Onate confirmed to Surkau (as he had to
Ambassador Javits, ref B) that the document is a
national paper that makes no official requests of
the Technical Secretariat (TS). Delrep noted that
the TS planned to respond to the Note Verbale after
the Director General returned, but said that it
might be preferable for delegations to ignore it,
as the primary audience for the Note may well have
been Tehran. Other delegations agreed that it
would be a mistake to give the issue traction by
reacting to the note. The UK delegate stated that
the Iranians had told her colleague that they do,
in fact, recognize the validity of the CSP
decisions. The Swiss delegate noted that Iran
appears isolated on this issue, while others
suggested that Iran could try and raise this issue
as an agenda item at EC-55, a point the French
delegate suggested WEOG should resist.


3. (SBU) Discussion moved on to the EC Bureau
meeting scheduled later in the week. Surkau
questioned why elections for the next Chair and
Vice-Chairs for the Executive Council are on the EC
-55 agenda, when there is another EC in April
before the annual turnover in May. No WEOG
delegation had a strong opinion on whether the
elections should be deferred to EC-56. GRULAC will
be meeting soon to discuss their candidates for the
EC Chair.


4. (SBU) Surkau also raised Iran's accreditation
lapse, noting that Iran still had not appointed a
new representative to the EC, and the rules
clearly call for a new regional group election for
their Bureau seat. Surkau pointed out that under
the OPCW rules of procedure, Iran would also have
no voting rights in the next EC -- an important
consideration should voting come up with the
election of the next Chair and Vice-Chairs. U.S.
Delrep noted that although the rules are clear on
this point, it would be awkward for the U.S. to
pursue the issue since the Delegation currently
also has no representative. The German Ambassador
suggested, as a possible bargaining chip, that WEOG
not raise this accreditation issue if Iran decided
to let its Note Verbale fade away. The UK and
French delegates opined that it might actually be
better to allow Iran to remain on the Bureau so
that it is forced to make its intentions known.


5. (SBU) On Iraq's accession to the Convention,
Surkau raised the question whether OPCW inspections
will be possible given the current security
conditions in Iraq. The Spanish delegate asked
whether Iraq would declare as a possessor state.
The German Ambassador noted that Iraq, by default,
would accede as a possessor state since he had
heard that Iraq planned to list countries it had
traded with in the past. U.S. Delrep responded
according to guidance (ref c) on the security
question.


6. (U) On the Host Country Committee, Delrep stated
that with Ambassador Javits departure, the U.S.
would welcome other delegations' interest in taking
his seat on the committee. The Swiss delegate
indicated Switzerland's desire to continue on the
committee. He also reported on the most recent
committee meeting and the extension of the current
commissary contractor for another year. Surkau
asked WEOG delegations to consider putting their
countries forward to replace the United States on
the committee.


7. (U) Finally, there was a brief discussion of the
Article X consultation scheduled for January 22,
and the openings for new facilitators for both
Article X and XI with the departures of current
facilitators Victor Smirnovsky (Russia) and Li Hong
(China) from The Hague.

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ARTICLE X CONSULTATIONS
--------------


8. (U) On January 22, Delreps attended Russian
delegate Victor Smirnovsky's last consultation as
Article X facilitator. Head of the TS Assistance
and Protection Branch (APB) Gennadi Lutay (Russia)
gave a presentation on the Branch's activities in
2008, and planned activities in 2009 (slides to be
forwarded separately to Washington). As usual,
Lutay was defensive and unable to effectively
answer most of the questions.


9. (U) South Africa raised a concern that the
OPCW's desire to train in a uni-lingual environment
resulted in training that did not effectively build
cohesion and cooperation within the traditional
sub-regional groupings in Africa. SA delegate Van
Schalkwyk pointed out the sub-regional groups will
best be able to respond quickly in an emergency,
and that is therefore far more valuable for
networks to evolve in this context, as opposed to
in a French or English speaking context.


10. (U) France suggested that, as the Organization
has been working on building capacity in Assistance
and Protection for over ten years, this would be a
good time for the Secretariat to provide an
overview of what has and has not been effective in
this area, and specifically recommended that such a
report include: an assessment of program efficacy;
recommendations for future orientation; and some
thoughts on networking (both with former trainees
and with other international organizations). Lutay
replied that the Secretariat is working on an
assessment that should be published in February.


11. (U) In response to other questions, APB member
Ervin Farkas provided a useful example of Central
Asian capacity building, in which he was able to
confirm continued networking of trainees years
after OPCW training. The Iranian delegation made
its traditional pitch for the importance of Article
X, encouraged more voluntary contributions, and
expressed concern that delegations and the TS were
beginning to focus too heavily on terrorism in
Article X, which was "not the only threat."
International Cooperation and Assistance Director
Mworia called upon States Parties to continue
contributing funding and training to Article X
efforts.


12. (U) As Vice Chair of the Chemical Weapons
cluster of issues, German Ambassador Burkart
thanked the facilitator for his work and called for
a new facilitator to be nominated before the
February EC.

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ALGERIAN COUNTER-TERRORISM CONFERENCE AND DG
CANDIDATE
--------------


13. (C) On January 21, Delreps met with Algerian
delegate Said Moussi to discuss planning for a
joint U.S.-Algeria conference on terrorism this
spring. Despite the reason for the meeting,
Moussi's number one agenda item was clearly to
discuss Algeria's interest in nominating a
candidate for the position of Director General of
the OPCW. He clarified for Delreps that, while
there were several possible candidates, Algerian
Ambassador to the Netherlands Benchaa Dani was
definitely being considered. Delreps noted the
U.S. understanding that there was an agreement
dating back to the Prepcom that leadership of the
Organization would rotate between developed and
developing countries.


14. (SBU) On the conference, Moussi indicated that
Algeria is still very interested in a meeting that
includes Mediterranean and international experts,
as opposed to limiting attendees to African
countries. He also noted the importance of
avoiding an appearance of the U.S. training
Africans; Delreps pointed to the importance of
Algeria and the African Center for Research and
Studies in Terrorism proposing appropriate African
experts to speak on various topics. On timing of
the conference, Moussi agreed that March is rapidly
becoming less realistic, and said that part of the
original reason to hold the event earlier was tied
to Algerian elections in April.


15. (SBU) Delreps and Moussi agreed that the next
logical step will be to involve other interested
parties (EU, OPCW),some of whom may be able to
provide experts or funding. Algeria clearly still
has high expectations for U.S. contributions, not
only for the conference, but also for building an
analytical chemical laboratory at the Center in
Algiers. Delrep later provided Moussi with a
general list of topics the U.S. would recommend
including in the conference agenda, as well as
specific topics for which the U.S. would be able to
provide expert speakers.


16. (SBU) French delegate Annie Mari, chairperson
of the Open Ended Working Group on Terrorism,
phoned Delrep later in the week to ask about this
conference. Moussi had consulted with the French
delegation during her absence over the holidays,
and she noted her particular interest in
participating in planning given her role in the
OEWG. She also noted that France could not fund
anything directly to the African Union's Counter-
terrorism Center due to the inclusion of the
Polisario as a member; however, France (and,
presumably by extension, the EU) could fund the
Algerian government for such a conference and would
not object to using the AU Center as a venue.
Delrep replied that we had encouraged Moussi to
consider a broader meeting with interested parties
from the OPCW and other governments to discuss the
conference and would welcome her participation.


17. (C) Del Comment: It will be important to
articulate the outer limits of U.S. contributions
as soon as possible. Given the amount of time
likely required to coordinate with the OPCW,
African Union, possibly the EU, and other
stakeholders, Del recommends starting the
coordination process early, and involving USG
parties with regional and local expertise (AFRICOM,
Embassy Algiers, State's African and Near East
Bureaus, etc.) Algeria still views this as a high
level political event, global in nature, and there
is a wide gap between the Algerian view and the
U.S. intent to train African experts and
practitioners. Algiers may in part be motivated by
a desire to put Algeria more visibly on the OPCW
map, in order to increase Algeria's chances for
success in a bid for the Director General post.
End Comment.

--------------
OF IRAQ AND IRAN
--------------


18. (C) Iraqi First Secretary Abbas Fadhil Al-
Khafaji, who has been assigned the CWC portfolio,
told Delrep that his government is considering
whether to assign a Permanent Representative to
OPCW in addition to the current Ambassador as they
take up full membership. He did not have further
information on their declaration except to say that
he expected it would not take long to complete
after the extensive preparations and multiple
workshops on the draft declaration.


19. (C) OPCW Deputy Director General confided to
Delrep that Acting Iranian Perm Rep Mohsin Naziri
Asl had told him that he would be transferring from
The Hague before the EC. (Del comment: If this
transfer, in fact, occurs, it would be good news,
after Naziri Asl's intransigent leadership of the
Iranian delegation during the CSP. We have,
however, been told before of imminent Iranian
transfers that take months to actually occur. End
comment.)

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SENIOR TS STAFF TURN-OVER
--------------


20. (SBU) Ron Nelson (Director, Administration)
told Delrep that the DG had convinced Nelson to
extend his contract until mid-2010 so that his
departure would coincide with the DG's. Nelson
also informed Delrep that Ichiro Akiyama (Director,
Inspectorate) has tendered his resignation,
effective this summer.


21. (SBU) Del Comment: Nelson had indicated
several times previously his desire to retire
sooner rather than later but seems to have
acquiesced to the DG's desire to keep his senior
management team in place until the end of his term.
And -- while Akiyama's departure might seem
surprising -- he had told Delreps last year that he
felt uneasy forcing inspectors to retire due to the
tenure policy while he remained in his position
beyond the tenure limit. Akiyama had indicated
that he would try to leave his post by mid-2009
despite obvious pressure from the DG to stay on.


22. (U) BEIK SENDS.
GALLAGHER