US embassy cable - 05DUBLIN50

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 000050 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/14/2015 
TAGS: KNNP, MNUC, PARM, PREL, KTIA, PHSA, EWWT 
SUBJECT: IRELAND SUPPORTS U.S.-PROPOSED SUA AMENDMENTS 
 
REF: STATE 4828 
 
Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Mary Daly; Reasons 1.4 (B) 
and (D). 
 
1.  (C) On January 14, Post delivered reftel talking points 
to Declan Smith, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) First 
Secretary for Legal Affairs and Director for Law of the Sea 
 
SIPDIS 
Issues.  (Eoin Fannon of Ireland's Attorney General's office 
will participate in the EU's January 17 Law of the Sea 
meeting (COMAR), which will aim to coordinate EU positions 
for the January 31 International Maritime Organization (IMO) 
Legal Committee meeting.  Fannon, however, will be acting on 
instructions from Smith's Legal Affairs Division in DFA.) 
Smith said that Ireland, and the EU generally, supported the 
U.S.-proposed amendments to the Convention on the Suppression 
of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation 
(SUA).  Regarding the dual use provision, Smith noted that 
COMAR would focus on eliminating imprecision in the draft IMO 
Protocol on the SUA amendments regarding the criminalization 
of the transport of items that are intended for use in the 
manufacture or delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). 
 He added that Ireland, along with most other EU Member 
States, also supported the notion that the dual use offense 
should cover transport to both state and non-state actors. 
Smith observed that difficulties in concluding a final IMO 
Protocol text derived from a lack of participation by 
non-proliferation experts in IMO Legal Committee meetings 
(consistent with reftel para 3).  In Ireland's case, DFA had 
to coordinate not only with the Attorney General's office, 
but also the Department of Communication, the Marine and 
Natural Resources, which would be responsible for new 
domestic legislation to implement the IMO Protocol.  Smith 
expected U.S.-EU consensus on moving forward with the SUA 
amendments, and he observed that the more difficult task 
would be to convince other countries, such as Pakistan, 
India, and China, as to the amendments' merits. 
KENNY