CTITF: IAEA HQ ON PROPOSED WMD TERRORIST ATTACK

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000160 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC PTER PARM PREL UNSC IAEA SUBJECT: CTITF: IAEA HQ ON PROPOSED WMD TERRORIST ATTACK COORDINATION STATE FOR ISN/CPI WUCHTE REF: STATE 26339 ¶1. (U) Upon receipt of reftel Mission queried the IAEA office of External Relations and Policy Coordination (EXPO) about the post-incident response exercise proposed in New York and draft paper on "preventing and responding to WMD terrorist attacks." We asked how the initiative relates to the IAEA's broader role in supporting member states in their compliance with UNSCR 1540. Our IAEA interlocutors, EXPO chief Vilmos Cserveny and deputy Tariq Rauf, made clear the initiative comes from the UN Counter Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) Working Group and not from the IAEA Secretariat; IAEA New York Representative Zlauvinen is involved with the work of the CTITF and chairs a working group. The Working Group is being led, as we understand, by the IAEA, the OPCW, UNODA, and the UNICRI, and supported by the WHO, INTERPOL, IMO, ICAO and the Experts assisting the 1540 Committee. EXPO chief Cserveny added that the IAEA's only significant interest in this undertaking is to ensure that entities in the UN system are aware of the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Center (http://www-ns.iaea.org/tech-areas/emergency/ incident-emergency-centre.htm ) and have factored the IAEA role into their emergency planning. ¶2. (U) Rauf informed us that for several months now the Working Group has been developing a work plan for 2009 that might contain three briefing or preparatory meetings in Vienna, The Hague and Turin, where the main organizations (IAEA, OPCW, WHO, INTERPOL) would provide technical and legal presentations on their respective emergency systems to cope with nuclear, radiological, chemical or biological emergencies, including those resulting from terrorist acts. Based on these meetings, the working group might decide to conduct a tabletop exercise to see how the UN system and relevant international organizations would coordinate in a possible scenario of a WMD terrorist attack. Conduct of the tabletop exercise has not yet been decided, and if and when it were to take place, it would most likely use a biological or chemical attack scenario rather than a radiological or nuclear attack scenario. ¶3. (SBU) Rauf stated further that for fundraising purposes, UN Assistant SYG Orr decided (1) to "minimize" the uncertainty about conducting the tabletop exercise (in the belief that most donors do not like funding either travel expenses or related travel costs, but rather "real" projects like the tabletop itself) and (2) to "share" with all member states the funding proposals of all nine working groups of the CTITF. This was done, Rauf said, during the briefing to the UNGA March 3, 2009. We understand A/SYG Orr asked each chairman of the working groups to follow up on the proposals with interested delegations. - ¶4. (U) As IAEA HQ understands, Gustavo Zlauvinen was approached by the U.S., EC, German and French delegations and explained the goal of the work plan and the modalities for its implementation, particularly that the tabletop exercise was not a "given" but would be decided upon based on the result of the three briefing/preparatory meetings. Some of these New York missions, particularly the EC, showed interest in the work plan. Per Rauf, it is Zlauvinen's understanding that the EC would be ready to provide up to EUR 140,000, but only to help organize the tabletop exercise. Zlauvinen will have to call for another meeting of the working group to see how the group wants to proceed with the work plan. ¶5. (U) Rauf provided UNVIE the latest draft funding proposal for the working group, which we conveyed by email to 1540 Coordinator Wuchte. SCHULTE