BELGIUM: SUPPORTING "EFFECTIVE" SANCTIONS ON IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 000137 SENSITIVE SIPDIS NEA/FO FOR ECATALANO, ISN/RA FOR RNEPHEW E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2020 TAGS: PARM PREL IR UNSC BE SUBJECT: BELGIUM: SUPPORTING "EFFECTIVE" SANCTIONS ON IRAN REF: STATE 120288 Classified By: Acting Pol/Econ Counselor Timothy Forsyth for Reasons 1. 4 (b) and (d) (C) Poloff delivered reftel points to Pierre Gillon, Desk Officer for Iran at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),on February 1. Gillon said that Belgium would welcome another UN security council resolution on Iran to give the European Union (EU) nations a "legitimate base" to work on additional sanctions. Gillon said that in order to get Russia and China to approve the resolution, he believed that the resolution's text will have to be "weaker" than what either Belgium or the U.S. would want. He said that Belgium is in favor of "effective" sanctions that press the regime, but not the Iranian people. He criticized the sanctions in the bill passed by the U.S. Senate that target importing refined petroleum products in Iran as "counterproductive." He said that these sanctions would not work, because they would allow the regime to make money by controlling the smuggling of refined oil into Iran and anger the Iranian people with higher gas prices, for which the regime will blame the U.S. and the EU. GUTMAN .