DEMARCHE DELIVERED IN SUPPORT OF OUTREACH FOR IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 000146 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/IR AND NEA/ARP JHARRIS AND JBERNDT E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2020 TAGS: IR PHUM PREL SA UNGA SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED IN SUPPORT OF OUTREACH FOR IRAN UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW SESSION REF: SECSTATE 07242 Classified By: Ambassador James B. Smith, Reasons 1.4 (b and d) ¶1. (U) On January 27 Poloff met with the Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs NGOs and Human Rights Directorate, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Rassi, to seek support for U.S. views and suggest recommendations for the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council's (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Iran per reftel. ¶2. (C) Dr. Al-Rassi had no immediate response regarding the official Saudi position on the UPR, but said he would deliver the points to his superior, Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs HRH Prince Torki bin Mohammed. He noted that the SAG had expressed its concern about Iran in November when it changed its vote on Iran at the UNGA country-specific Human Rights resolutions. He further commented that based on his 13 years of experience working with Human Rights issues, he regarded the UPR process as "politicized" and cited the Goldstone Report as an example of how Western countries were in a better position to push their point of view "irrespective of the actual human rights issue." Dr. Al-Rassi said he had not yet been approached by other countries concerning Iran's UPR. SMITH