US embassy cable - 04MADRID974

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 000974 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, SP, American - Spanish Relations, Spanish Election March 2004 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR,S MEETING WITH POSSIBLE NEW SPANISH 
FOREIGN MINISTER MORATINOS 
 
REF: STATE 2311 
 
Classified By: Ambassador George Argyros for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Ambassador Argyros had a cordial discussion 
March 22 with Miguel Angel Moratinos, reported to be the 
leading candidate to serve as Foreign Minister under the 
government of Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) leader 
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Moratinos stressed Zapatero,s 
appreciation for the President,s phone call after the March 
14 Spanish elections.  Moratinos was also grateful for 
Secretary Powell,s phone call to him on Friday, March 18. 
 
SIPDIS 
Moratinos said that Zapatero had asked him to convey to the 
Ambassador that his government will want to maintain the same 
level of excellent bilateral relations that had been 
constructed during the Popular Party (PP) government, and 
would express its differences constructively, as among 
friends. On Iraq, Moratinos reiterated Zapatero,s position 
that absent a UN mandate for troops there, Spanish troops 
would be withdrawn. However, he underscored that the U.S. and 
Spain must remain focused on their shared objective in Iraq: 
promoting stability and democracy.  He said we should work to 
find a way to meet these objectives "with or without" Spanish 
troops.  He also said that the PSOE government was 
considering increasing Spanish presence in Afghanistan, from 
where PSOE sees the most direct Al-Qaeda threat, 
demonstrating that PSOE would not appease terrorists. 
 
2.  (C) Moratinos said that Zapatero was grateful for the USG 
response to the terrorist attacks and the Spanish elections, 
but was concerned about criticism in the U.S. press and some 
other "sectors" that undermined the legitimacy of the Spanish 
elections by saying that Al-Qaeda had put PSOE in power. 
"This is a redline for us, which we cannot accept," Moratinos 
said, and asked for USG help in dispelling this image. 
Ambassador Argyros drew from talking points in reftel to 
convey USG,s desire to work constructively with the new 
Spanish government on counter-terrorism and a range of other 
issues. END SUMMARY 
 
3.  (C) Moratinos opened the March 22 meeting with Ambassador 
Argyros by expressing his and President-elect Zapatero,s 
deep appreciation for the spirit and tone of the phone calls 
from President Bush to Zapatero and Secretary Powell to 
Moratinos.  He said Zapatero has specifically asked him to 
convey to Ambassador Argyros that the Spanish relationship 
with the U.S. would be his government's high priority.  PSOE 
wanted to build on the close ties that the Popular Party 
under President Aznar had built with the U.S.  It would be 
"stupidity" to end these ties, and PSOE wants to build on 
this strong relationship, Moratinos said.  Moratinos noted 
that Spain will want to strengthen its ties with Europe, "our 
family," but that this does not contradict the need for close 
ties with the U.S.  PSOE wants rich U.S.-EU ties and strong 
U.S.-Spanish bilateral relations, he added.  "We intend to 
work on the basis of no change" in our bilateral relations 
from the PP government.  He said that the difference between 
the PSOE and PP approach would be that while PSOE would try 
to be "constructively involved" in Iraq and the Middle East, 
the new government would convey its concerns to the U.S., in 
the spirit of friendship and the desire to find common 
ground. 
 
4.  (C)  Moratinos expressed appreciation for his phone call 
with Secretary Powell, which he called "excellent." 
Moratinos said that he had encountered the Secretary on 
various occasions in his capacity as EU envoy, and he would 
"never forget" the warmth of the Secretary's contacts with 
him. In the phone call, Moratinos said he had expressed his 
desire, as soon as he is formally invested as Foreign 
Minister, to visit Washington as his first trip. He 
reiterated this to the Ambassador.  Moratinos said the 
objective would be to underscore our strong ties and to have 
a serious discussion about what we can and cannot do on 
certain issues, and to find common ground.   He thought the 
government might be formally in place in the third week of 
April and would like to visit right after that. 
 
5.  (C)   Ambassador Argyros expressed deep condolences for 
the March 11 terrorist attacks.  Moratinos said that the 
President and Secretary Powell had reacted sincerely to the 
attacks and appropriately to the results of the Spanish 
elections three days later.  Moratinos said that Zapatero was 
concerned by the reaction by some press and "some sectors" in 
the U.S. (but not the USG itself) that Al-Qaeda handed PSOE 
their electoral victory.  This, Moratinos said, undermined 
the legitimacy of the Spanish election results.  Spain is a 
serious democracy, he said, with a sense of pride and 
commitment in defending and supporting what Spain has built 
through the years.  Moratinos said that PSOE "will not 
accept" criticism that Al-Qaeda put Zapatero in power.  He 
said this would be an insult to Zapatero, to Spanish 
democracy and the Spanish people.  Moratinos asked for USG 
help ) "Whatever you can do" to help dispel this image. 
This is a "redline" for PSOE, he stressed.  PSOE is not going 
to accept the image that the Spanish Republic is a banana 
republic.  Ambassador Argyros noted USG statements that the 
elections 3 days after the horrific terrorist attacks was a 
victory for Spanish democracy. 
 
6.  (C) Moratinos and Argyros agreed on the importance of 
avoiding setting US-Spanish relations through rhetoric and 
the need for private dialogue and meetings.  Ambassador 
Argyros also suggested the importance of avoiding commentary 
or speculation on the US elections by senior PSOE leadership. 
Moratinos said that PSOE, including Zapatero, understood 
this.  He said that there would be no more commentary from 
Zapatero or the PSOE on the US elections. 
 
7.  (C) On Iraq, Moratinos said that "if there is not a 
change in the role of the UN" in Iraq, we will pull out our 
troops.  But, he asked the Ambassador to convey to the 
President and the Secretary that Spanish commitment to a 
stable, democratic Iraq remained unwavering, and that this 
would continue "with or without Spanish troops."  Moratinos 
said PSOE knows the U.S. would prefer that the troops remain, 
but, he added, it is important to underscore that we share 
the same objective of a democratic, stable Iraq.  "Let's talk 
together," he said, about how we can achieve this objective. 
The U.S., he said, has a great role to play in this, and 
should.  "We are not going to put our finger in your eye" on 
Iraq, according to Moratinos.  Again, he reiterated his 
desire to discuss how we can achieve our objectives in Iraq 
"with or without" Spanish troops. 
 
8. (C)  Ambassador Argyros underscored our commitment to 
maintain strong US-Spanish ties in NATO.  Moratinos said that 
"nothing will change at all" on NATO issues, noting that the 
USG and the previous PSOE government had had excellent 
relations.  Moratinos said that the new government was 
thinking of increasing Spanish involvement in Afghanistan, to 
help counter Al-Qaeda there.  He said PSOE wanted to make 
clear that it would not appease Al-Qaeda, and wanted to 
respond in way that Spain could be most effective.  He noted 
that the new government would have a commitment to the 
Spanish people to react to the March 11 attacks.  He 
indicated that increasing Spain's role in Afghanistan would 
also show that the PSOE government was not appeasing 
terrorists. 
 
9. (C)  On counter-terrorism, Moratinos said that Spain, 
Europe and the US needed to work together to revisit their 
counter-terrorism strategy (he would not call it a "war" 
because that would give legitimacy to the terrorists, he 
said), since the current strategy has not stemmed the tide of 
terrorism.  Spain might call for a dialogue between the US 
and the EU on terrorism, to have a fresh discussion of 
strategy, identify what has worked and what has failed. 
 
10. (C) Ambassador Argyros also underscored areas in which 
the U.S. and Spain share common interests, such as Latin 
America, where both Spain and the U.S. have huge investments 
and an interest in stability and democracy.  Moratinos agreed. 
 
11. (C) On the Middle East Moratinos mentioned the need to 
maintain the commitment to the Roadmap.  He expressed deep 
concern, however, about the effect of the assassination just 
minutes before this meeting, by Israeli forces of the Hamas 
leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.  Moratinos had to break briefly 
from the meeting to give a statement to the Spanish press on 
the issue. He said that he considered this leader 
reprehensible, but was deeply concerned about the impact in 
the region of this "extra-judicial" killing (see paragraph 14 
for text of Moratinos' March 22 statement on Hamas killing). 
 
12.  (C) At the close of the discussion, both the Ambassador 
and Moratinos agreed on the importance of building on the 
U.S.-Spanish ties relationship and our shared commitment to 
the war on terrorism.  Ambassador Argyros throughout the 
meeting underscored the USG,s desire to work closely with 
the new government on issues of common concern, noting that, 
as among friends, there would be some issues on which we 
would have differences.  Both also stressed the need to avoid 
developing our relationship through public rhetoric rather 
than private dialogue. 
 
13.  (U) Moratinos' statement on Hamas killing, in interview 
on Spanish national radio:  "It puts the situation in the 
Middle East and relations between Israel and Palestine back 
into a situation of a vicious circle of violence from which 
we are unable to emerge.  Therefore I believe we all 
understand and we all share the state of Israel's security 
needs, but that cannot justify going outside the rule of law 
to fight terrorism when there are commitments to respect the 
rule of law, and that is what we have always said:  these 
kinds of extrajudicial operations must be avoided and ended, 
because they only create greater cries for vengeance, greater 
unease and frustration among the Palestinian population." 
ARGYROS