DEMARCHE DELIVERED: PREPARING FOR SYRIA AT MARCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000437 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/26/2015 TAGS: PARM PREL KNNP IAEA SY RS SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: PREPARING FOR SYRIA AT MARCH IAEA BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING REF: SECSTATE 16530 Classified By: Deborah Klepp, ESTH Counselor, for reasons 1.4 (b and d) ¶1. (C) EmbOff delivered reftel message on February 26 to Third Secretaries Aleksandr Bulychev and Roman Ustinov in the MFA Department for Security Affairs and Disarmament. After listening attentively, they responded that Russia had reviewed the DG's sixth report on Syria and Amano did not say that Syria was in "serious violation" of IAEA safeguards. Russia will support the DG's call for Syria to cooperate with IAEA, but also believes that other states, specifically Israel, need to provide information as well. In short, they did not think the new report provided much new information that was not already in the November report. (Note: Although we asked, they did not specify how Russia would treat this issue at the March Board of Governors meeting. End Note.) Beyrle