(S) MAHLEY DELEGATION MEETS FOREIGN MINISTER ON

S E C R E T YEREVAN 000025 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019 TAGS: PARM ETTC AM SUBJECT: (S) MAHLEY DELEGATION MEETS FOREIGN MINISTER ON IRAN ARMS TRANSFER/EXPORT CONTROL REF: A. YEREVAN 20 ¶B. 08 YEREVAN 1051 ¶C. 08 YEREVAN 1040 Classified By: Amb. Marie L. Yovanovitch, reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (S) Summary: Ambassador Mahley and his delegation met with FM Nalbandian on January 16 to discuss the U.S. proposal for steps to alleviate U.S. concerns with Armenia's facilitation of an arms transfer to Iran and Armenia's future export control process. FM Nalbandian said Armenia was ready to fully cooperate, but needed time to compile its specific responses to our proposed draft MOU. He proposed that once an interagency team had renewed the MOU and relevant Armenian law, that negotiations be held in either Yerevan or Washington. Ambassador Mahley proposed that the MOU should be signed by March 1. End Summary -------------- FM: Want to Cooperate, But We Need Time -------------- ¶2. (S) Ambassador Mahley met with FM Nalbandian to hear Armenia's response to the U.S. proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that lays out steps Armenia would take to enhance its export control system in order to prevent Armenia from providing arms to Iran and other countries of concern. FM Nalbandian said Armenia was ready to fully cooperate on all the points mentioned by the U.S. in the MOU, however it needed some time to review the document. As soon as Armenia had compiled its comments from all appropriate agencies, it would be prepared to send a working group to Washington (or to receive one in Yerevan) to "negotiate" the MOU. Armenia has good cooperation with the U.S., particularly in the political-military field, Nalbandian said. The GOAM was interested in enhancing cooperation in the export control field. -------------- Mahley: Armenia Needs to Take Urgent Action -------------- ¶3. (S) Ambassador Mahley responded he was encouraged by Armenia's willingness to move forward rapidly. He noted this was a two phase process: the first phase was the signing of the MOU that contains steps our two governments need to work on together; the second phase was implementing the MOU measures, which Mahley noted would take additional time. Mahley also emphasized that ensuring the effectiveness of implementation of the MOU would be a continuing effort. He noted, however, there was some urgency in signing the MOU. This urgency was due to the high profile in the U.S. on arms transfers to Iraq of weapons, particularly when they result in attacks on U.S. forces. Congress has asked to be briefed on the outcome of Mahley's Yerevan discussions. He planned to report that we are ready to do follow-up work. ¶4. (S) Mahley proposed that work on the MOU be finished by March 1. He said the U.S. Transition Team was aware of this issue and likely by early March the new Administration would be ready to turn to next steps. The U.S. delegation would be preparing a package for the new Adminstration that contains the necessary sanctions reports, which we hoped by then would include a report on all Armenia is doing to prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident. Mahley said he would like to be in a position to recommend a waiver of U.S. sanctions. ¶5. (S) FM Nalbandian said Armenia was prepared to do this as soon as possible, but he was dependent on getting responses from all the other agencies. He would try to get this done within the proposed timeline. Mahley responded he understood the difficulties in coordinating responses from other agencies, but again stressed the importance placed on this issue by Washington and repeated that we had to work within the parameters of the U.S. sanctions laws. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶6. (S) The Foreign Minister said all the right things, but we anticipate that we will need to continue pushing the Armenians so that they take the appropriate action in a timely manner. The Embassy will follow up with Armenian interlocutors during the week of January 19. YOVANOVITCH