US embassy cable - 05VIENNA175

C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 000175 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/AGS AND EUR/ERA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/21/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, PTER, EAID, KPAL, BK, CU, IR, IZ, UP, CH, AU, EUN 
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO AUSTRIA ON JANUARY 31 EU FOREIGN 
MINISTERS' MEETING (GAERC) 
 
REF: STATE 9678 
 
Classified By: Economic-Political Counselor Gregory E. Phillips.  Reaso 
ns:  1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (U) EconPolCouns met with Foriegn Ministry EU Affaris 
director Werner Almhofer on January 21 to present reftel 
points.  Almhofer made the following substantive replies: 
 
2.  (SBU) Tsunami:  Almhofer expressed some frustration with 
the European public's dissatisfaction with the response of 
their governments, while acknowledging that this was a 
natural reaction of individuals whom crises have struck. 
Almhofer agreed that the effort to provide physical and 
economic reconstruction and support to the survivors was key. 
 
3.  (SBU) Transatlantic Relations:  Almhofer welcomed the 
President's trip.  He said it would be important to organize 
the President's meetings in Brussels to make best use of 
them.  It is hard, he said, to meet with 25 counterparts if 
each covers their own uncoordinated agenda.  He thought the 
EU side should "choreograph" their presentations in order to 
make the meeting as useful as possible for the President. 
 
3.  (C) Hizbollah as a Terrorist Organization:  There was a 
long "theological" discussion in the EU on the question of 
how to treat organizations like Hizbollah.  Some EU members 
point to Hizbollah's "civilian" activities as fulfilling a 
useful role, while others point out that this makes it 
impossible for legitimate authorities to assume their 
rightful responsibilities.  There was therefore considerable 
discussion under way of how to substitute for Hizbollah's 
activites in this area, but there were as yet no movement 
toward makin this a reality. 
 
4.  (C) Iraq:  Almhofer said the EU position was that the EU 
would engage "immediately after" the January 30 election to 
train administrators and police, and provide other assistance 
to Iraq.  Almhofer agreed on the importance of out of country 
voting (OCV), especially in Iran.  We urged Almhofer to 
support an active EU role in OCV in Iran. 
 
5.  (C) Cuba:  The EU felt it was necessary not to step back 
entirely from the measures it had imposed on Cuba, Almhofer 
said.  There was an effort to draft guidelines for dealings 
with Cuba, and the maintenance of contacts with dissidents 
was "high on the agenda." 
 
6.  (C) China:  On the arms embargo, Almhofer noted that 
there had been some talk of sending a team from Washington to 
provide a more detailed analysis of the sort of exports to 
China which would cause the most difficulty for the U.S.  He 
asked whether such a team would be coming to Europe.  We said 
we continued to oppose lifting the embargo generally. 
 
7.  (C) Action Request:  We would appreciate any information 
to respond to Almhofer's question about whether Washington 
intends to send a team for briefings related to the China 
arms embargo. 
Brown