UNODC/IRAN: SLOWLY MOVING FORWARD ON REGIONAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 UNVIE VIENNA 000226

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2023
TAGS: PREL SNAR IR PAK AF
SUBJECT: UNODC/IRAN: SLOWLY MOVING FORWARD ON REGIONAL
COOPERATION

REF: A. UNVIE VIENNA 00117

B. UNVIE VIENNA 00173

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Geoffrey Pyatt for reasons 1.4 (c) and
(e)


1. (C) Summary. UNODC Head of the Europe and Central/West
Asia Office Roberto Arbitrio on May 13 briefed Msnoffs on his
trip the prior week to Afghanistan and Iran. Although the
trip did not yield much substantive progress, it appears that
joint counternarcotics cooperation under the Triangular
Initiative continues to move forward, and Iran, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan are still working to do a second joint
counternarcotics operation by late June. Arbitrio speculated
that despite U.S. movement toward engagement, Iran may not be
able or willing to respond until fall or later and certainly
will not take any steps before the presidential elections
next month. Already, Iran has ended its willingness to have
substantive dialogue on new counternarcotics initiatives with
UNODC. End Summary.

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UNODC Meetings Make Little Progress
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2. (C) UNODC Head of the Europe and Central/West Asia
Office Roberto Arbitrio on May 13 told Msnoffs that the prior
week's meeting in Kabul, which he attended with UNODC
Executive Director Antonio Costa, was the second meeting of
the "Tripartite Initiative" involving Iran, Afghanistan, and
the UN. Arbitrio noted that the Tripartite Initiative was
formed at the behest of Iran about a year ago and the May
meeting was also held at Tehran's initiative. Arbitrio
described this forum as part of Iran's increased interest in
being actively engaged with Afghanistan and getting
recognition for doing so. He noted that Iran probably wanted
to "position itself" on Afghanistan and increase its
leverage, but felt that a UN umbrella would make its outreach
more successful.


3. (C) Overall, Arbitrio dubbed the meeting "not
particularly interesting," though Iran promised bilateral
assistance to Afghanistan, including a training course for
Afghan police. (Comment: There is no indication that this
is different from the prior Iranian proposal of training for
Afghan police. End Comment.) Arbitrio noted that Iran would
like to offer the course at its new training center in Iran
which it sees as state of the art. This complex also is
where the Triangular Initiative's Joint Planning Cell is
hosted.


4. (C) As part of this trip, Arbitrio and Costa also met
with the governor of Herat and an Italian PRT there and
visited a counternarcotics checkpoint near Herat where they
met the commander of Afghanistan's border patrol and U.S.
advisors to Afghanistan's forces (septel).


5. (C) Although Costa left the region through Iran, he
held no meetings there. Arbitrio remained in Iran to
introduce his colleague Antonino de Leo to the Iranian
interlocutors he worked with during his recent four and a
half year post in Tehran. (Note: De Leo is on a three-month
TDY to run the UNODC office in Tehran and has applied with
UNODC to remain in Iran as the head of UNODC's Iran programs
there. End Note.) None of these meetings were substantive,
Arbitrio said, because Iran's policies are frozen until after
the presidential elections next month, and we probably will
not see movement until the September to December time frame.
Nevertheless, he speculated that Iran probably would not
"spoil" an opportunity for engagement with the U.S. before
then if in its interests, though it probably cannot act or
change its policy until at least late fall. We could see
additional signals in the interim, such as the release of
Saberi, but a signal is different than a change in policy.
Most members of the Iranian establishment are acting with
extreme caution until a new administration is in place, but
the Iranian leadership probably already has some ideas and
new policies that are on the shelf until after the election.
Arbitrio noted that he makes clear to his Iranian
interlocutors that they currently have an opportunity that
they should take advantage of if they want to re-integrate
into the international community and that this door will not
be open forever. His sense is that Iran knows that there is
an "urgency" to discuss "certain issues," so they will be
reluctant to truly let these opportunities pass by.

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Moving Forward on Regional Programs
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UNVIE VIEN 00000226 002 OF 002




6. (C) The Iranian delegation to the Tripartite Initiative
meetings in Kabul--which included Iranian Ambassador to
Afghanistan Maleki, Iranian Deputy Secretary General of
Iran's Drug Control Headquarters Taheri, and head of Iran's
Anti-Narcotics Police Hossein-Abadi--also planned to discuss
with Afghan officials future operations under the Triangular
Initiative, though UNODC did not take part in these meetings.
Afghanistan still has not completed its own "lessons
learned" exercise evaluating the March 8 joint
counternarcotics operation (ref A),but Arbitrio hopes that a
review exercise with Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well
as a second joint operation can take place before the third
ministerial meeting of the Triangular Initiative, which is
tentatively set for June 21-24 in Islamabad (Pakistan is
still waiting for a response from Iran on the dates). The
Pakistani Anti-Narcotics Forces have developed an operational
plan for the second joint operation and plan to take the
lead. A workshop on communications requirements for the
Triangular Initiative is also being planned because of the
inability for the three national forces to communicate during
the March operation. Pakistan has passed out a questionnaire
to all three states, but Arbitrio suspects that Iran is
unlikely to participate given its sensitivities about its
radio communications equipment. Tehran's suspicions of other
states' interference in its communications equipment also
will prevent Iran from accepting or using any communications
equipment not manufactured in Iran in Arbitrio's opinion. In
addition, by the end of the month, Afghanistan plans to send
a full-time drug liaison officer to the Joint Planning Cell
for the first time, which Arbitrio sees as an important step
forward.


7. (C) In addition, UNODC currently is developing a
regional program proposal from the Rainbow Strategy to
present at the June G8 meeting in Trieste. UNODC plans to
create a regional coordination unit based in Vienna to
backstop and support regional integration as its programs
move more in that direction. Arbitrio expects that the
coordination unit will be led by a steering committee that
will create action plans for regional programs.

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Iranian/UNODC Priorities for Drug Demand Reduction
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8. (C) Arbitrio noted that UNODC's priorities for drug
demand reduction programs as reflected in the presentation
its officials gave in late April (ref B) are reflective of
Iran's priorities as well, but he would focus on three issues
for funding in this category: prevention, advocacy, and
treatment. He argued that prevention and advocacy programs
are important because they are essentially civil society
programs and help to support NGOs and keep them engaged in
Iran. In general, Iran is still not interested in receiving
bilateral assistance, but prefers to work through UNODC.


9. (C) Arbitrio also reiterated that the language we use
when working with Iran on counternarcotics issues is
important to engagement. For example, the UNODC always
speaks of "partnership" with Iran, rather than "assistance"
to Iran when speaking to Iranian officials. Discussion of
assistance to Iran always shuts down Iran's willingness to
engage. However, Iran is able to be in give and receive
modes on counterdrug issues and sees prestige in both hosting
regional workshops, since Iran is seen as the center for
South-South cooperation, and going to international top-level
drug control programs for "exchanges" through which Iran
would learn from other experts without admitting to being in
a lesser contributing role. Iran is very interested in both
kinds of exchange.
PYATT