AMBASSADOR RICE COURTESY MEETING WITH GERMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000125 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNSC AF IR GM SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE COURTESY MEETING WITH GERMAN PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE Classified By: Ambassador Susan E. Rice for Reasons 1.4 B/D. ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. German PermRep Matussek told Ambassador Rice in their first meeting on February 3 that Berlin and the international community have high expectations about a U.S. policy of engagement with the Iranian leadership without precondition. Rice asked Matussek to help ensure that Germany works with the U.S. to push Iran beyond suspension of its illicit nuclear program to ending it. On Afghanistan, Matussek thinks Germany's elections in September could prompt a change in German troop deployment policy, but said that for now Berlin will not allow troops to leave the north except in emergencies. END SUMMARY. Iran -- Expectations High -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In their first meeting, Ambassador Rice and German PermRep Thomas Matussek discussed Iran and Afghanistan on February 3. Ambassador Matussek said the statement made by President Obama as a candidate about a willingness to engage with the Iranian leadership without precondition has raised international community expectations, including in Berlin. Ambassador Rice said that neither ending Iran's illicit nuclear program by force nor acquiescing to it are desirable outcomes. She said the USG is reviewing its policy and is interested in testing a third path, utilizing all instruments of U.S. power, including direct diplomacy and pressure plus incentives. She said the USG would be looking to its 3 3 partners to move us past the stalemate that has emerged from the demand for suspension of the program before engagement to get beyond mere suspension. ¶3. (C) Ambassador Rice acknowledged that our European partners tend to believe we can afford a longer time frame for progress than does the U.S. She said U.S. thinking is that we don't have much more time than calendar year 2009, or maybe six months beyond, to make real progress. Matussek repeated his positive assessment of the potential for engagement with Iran to trigger progress, adding that engagement would improve prospects for simultaneously achieving international community consensus on a more robust package of potential sanctions. Rice agreed, stressing that U.S. partners should not see a U.S. willingness to engage as indicative of any lessening of U.S. resolve on sanctions or U.S. commitment to the 3 3 format. Afghanistan -- German Policy Set Until September -------------- --- ¶4. (SBU) Ambassador Matussek volunteered Germany would not be making additional troops available for the Afghanistan south "for the foreseeable future." Ambassador Rice asked whether next September's German elections could cause reconsideration of that policy. Matussek said such a reconsideration was possible at that time but that the present policy was firm -- there would be no north-south movement of German troops except in emergencies. He added that Germany would be prepared in the interim to do more in police training and economic development. Rice