AMB. RICE'S CALL ON AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000073 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNSC AU SUBJECT: AMB. RICE'S CALL ON AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR MAYR-HARTING Classified By: Ambassador Susan Rice, for reasons 1.4 b/d. ¶1. (C/NF) SUMMARY: Ambassador Rice discussed international humanitarian law, peacekeeping and sanctions with Austrian PermRep Thomas Mayr-Harting during an introductory call on January 28. Mayr-Harting said he was eager to work with the United States, and pledged that when our positions differed, Austria would seek constructive dialogue rather than pursuing its agenda with "missionary zeal." He made a pitch to coordinate with Austria early in the process of drafting resolutions, hinting that his mission might better reflect EU opinion than France or the UK. End summary. ¶2. (C) Austrian PermRep (and former MFA Political Director) Thomas Mayr-Harting welcomed Ambassador Rice to the Austrian Mission for a courtesy call on January 28. Mayr-Harting set a warm tone for the meeting, noting that the alphabetical arrangement of the Council table would mean Austria and the U.S. would sit together beginning in 2010. International Humanitarian Law -------------- ¶3. (C) Mayr-Harting said that Austria had campaigned for the Security Council as a non-controversial rule-of-law candidate "with no enemies." Thus, it attached special importance to international law, and in particular, international humanitarian law. Amb. Rice solicited Austrian views on the January 29 Council session on international humanitarian law (IHL). Mayr-Harting said that Austria was pleased with the French initiative to hold this session, and that it shared much common ground with the U.S., particularly on issues such as the protection of civilians and the status of children in armed conflict. On issues where the U.S. and Austria differed, such as IHL with regard to the situation in Gaza, Mayr-Harting said that Austria would attempt to advance its views through patient dialogue rather than "missionary zeal." Indeed, he said that Austria would seek to broaden the Council's debate on IHL to include Darfur and Uganda in order to avoid a myopic focus on Gaza. ¶4. (C) Amb. Rice welcomed Austrian engagement but noted the difficulty of translating a topic as open-ended as IHL into an actionable agenda. The Austrian PermRep responded that, in his view, the Council's consideration of IHL should focus on three areas: (1) identification of the legal instruments at hand, (2) discussion of possible preventative action by the Council (e.g. through cooperation with the ICRC or other humanitarian partners) and (3) debate on how the Council should react to violations of IHL. Sudan Sanctions -------------- ¶5. (C) Mayr-Harting solicited the new administration's views on Sudan - a topic of particular interest to Austria in its capacity as chair of the Sudan Sanctions Committee. Amb. Rice confirmed that the U.S. would not want to prevent justice from pursuing its course with regard to the potential International Criminal Court (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Bashir, and added that the U.S. had not seen any action from Sudan that would justify putting off the ICC's proceedings. Rice said that the Council must send a clear message to Sudan that action by the ICC, including the possible arrest warrant for President Bashir, would not be a license to retaliate against UN peacekeepers or others. Rice and Mayr-Harting discussed Council dynamics on the ICC issue and agreed that while China and some African delegations might support a deferral, they would not gain the nine votes needed for a Council majority. 1267 Sanctions -------------- ¶6. (C) Amb. Rice welcomed Austria's chairmanship of the 1267 (al Qaida/Taliban) Sanctions Committee. She said that it was very important to the U.S. to broaden the 1267 Committee's activities, and that the U.S. remained concerned by European legal proceedings that questioned the legality of targeted UN sanctions. Austria responded that the first step in addressing European legal concerns would be to fully implement resolution 1822, which calls for greater transparency and the introduction of narrative summaries to accompany individual listings. Further possible adjustments to the sanctions regime could be discussed at the time of 1822's renewal in December 2009. Peacekeeping -------------- USUN NEW Y 00000073 002 OF 002 ¶7. (C) Mayr-Harting said that Austria intended to be actively involved in Council debates over the future of peacekeeping, as over 60,000 Austrian troops had served under UN authority since the UN's inception. Amb. Rice agreed that building peacekeeping capacity was vitally important, and said that the U.S. was concerned that the UN's capacity to conduct peacekeeping operations had not kept up with the Council's ever-increasing requests for the UN to do more. She said that creative ideas and concrete initiatives would be needed to close this capacity gap. Mayr-Harting agreed, and took the opportunity to invite Amb. Rice to two Austrian-hosted seminars in June and August in which the future of peacekeeping would be discussed. ¶8. (C/NF) Finally, Mayr-Harting made a pitch for enhanced U.S.-Austrian coordination on the Council. He cited former Danish PermRep (and current SRSG for Liberia) Ellen Margrethe Loj in referring to the "Christmas tree effect" in which non-permanent members are consulted late in the process of drafting new resolutions and feel the need to embellish them with unnecessary language in order to show results to their capitals. He suggested that Austria should be consulted early, particularly on issues where the EU played a major role, as some European capitals might be more open to consulting through Austria than through the UK or France. Rice