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