AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS UK FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000980 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL UNSC UK IR SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS UK FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Ambassador Rice on October 27 met with 14 members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament. The Parliamentarians, who represented the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour, raised Iran, the Middle East, U.S. relations with Russia, Afghanistan, and concern over legal challenges to Security Council sanctions regimes. The Committee members met in New York with key missions such as the U.S., France and Russia, after which they planned to travel to Washington for meetings with counterparts in Congress as well as with officials in the Department of State, Pentagon, and with staff of the Brookings Institutions. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) At the request of the UK Mission to the UN, Ambassador Rice on October 27 met with the 14-member Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament to discuss U.S. foreign policy. The Committee members traveled to New York to meet with key missions, such as the U.S., France and Russia, following which they planned to travel to Washington for meetings with their counterparts in Congress as well as with officials in the Department of State, Pentagon, and with staff of the Brookings Institutions. Mike Gapes, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, moderated the question and answer session. The first question posed to Ambassador Rice concerned whether the new U.S. approach to the United Nations was a tactical approach or a strategic policy move. Ambassador Rice said the UN was an indispensable if imperfect institution and that the broad range of transnational challenges could only be addressed in a multilateral forum like the UN. She reviewed the six key ways in which the US approach to the UN has changed and which she had outlined in her speech at New York University on August 12. ¶3. (SBU) One member said they had just met with the Russian Deputy Permanent Representative, who said an Iranian move to a militarized nuclear program would be a redline, but that diplomacy was the only path Russia was prepared to take, a position the Committee member described as an inherent contradiction. Ambassador Rice noted that Russia is more vested in this issue than in the past. She said that Russia clearly prefers a diplomatic solution to the challenges of the Iranian nuclear program, although higher authorities in Moscow may recognize that diplomacy alone might not be a sufficient strategy. Another Committee member inquired why the U.S. and UK governments had not shown greater enthusiasm for Russian offers to enrich Iran's uranium. Ambassador Rice responded that in the absence of any real dialogue with Iran, the U.S. views concrete discussions of proposals as premature. ¶4. (SBU) Regarding Russia, a Committee member remarked that President Obama is "resetting" relations with Moscow but that in his view the Russians had not reciprocated. Ambassador Rice answered that some positive steps, such as the decision to reorient the missile-defense shield in Europe, have not been undertaken as favors to Russia but were made after reviewing national priorities and threats. That these policy reviews have helped improved the bilateral relationship, she said, is obviously welcome. ¶5. (SBU) One Committee member remarked that interested parties are awaiting a decision from President Obama on how the U.S. will implement a new policy toward Afghanistan, particularly since the British public was growing anxious about the UK's commitment given that the public "just see bodybags coming home." Ambassador Rice said President Obama noted in March that the U.S. would examine its strategy after the elections in Afghanistan. She said that the U.S. is also taking heightened casualties, but the U.S. is not considering downsizing its commitment to Afghanistan. ¶6. (SBU) One participant raised the UK's concern that legal actions in the European Union could undermine some sanctions regimes of the Security Council, particularly the 1267 Committee. Ambassador Rice said the U.S. shared those concerns, and the Administration is working with the Department of Treasury to scrub sanctions lists to remove individuals who should not be designated. Rice