US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE376

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000376 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015 
TAGS: PREL, ETTC, PTER, HR, CH, LE, KPAL, SU, RS, GG, EZ, IR, EUN 
SUBJECT: CZECHS ON GAERC, CHINA ARMS EMBARGO, HIZBALLAH AND 
SYRIAN FM VISIT 
 
REF: A. STATE 39909 
     B. STATE 44309 
     C. STATE 44087 
     D. STATE 44486 
     E. STATE 44347 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Kimberly C. Krhounek for reasons 1.4(b 
) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary.  On March 14, we met with Mr. Michal 
Strouhal, Director of the Common Foreign and Security Policy 
Department in the Czech MFA, to discuss the GAERC (ref a), 
China Arms Embargo (ref b), and visit of Syrian FM to Europe 
(ref c).  We also delivered the statement on U.S. support of 
the EU-3 diplomacy in Iran (ref d) and the non-paper on 
Hizballah (ref e).  On the China Arms Embargo, Strouhal noted 
that this issue is not on the GAERC agenda, but that the EU 
would expect some progress on human rights from China before 
making a decision to lift the embargo.  The EU is still a 
long way from reaching a consensus decision to designate both 
the military and political wings of Hizballah as terrorist 
organizations; roughly eight EU Member Countries still 
maintain objections at the technical level, although the 
Czechs and Dutch have expressed support at the ministerial 
level.  Strouhal agreed that the April timing of the Syrian 
FM's planned visit to Italy was "not appropriate" and 
expected the recent developments in Lebanon to be the main 
focus of the GAERC's Middle East discussions.  The USG 
decision to support the EU-3 on Iran was warmly welcomed as 
an important "follow-up to President Bush's trip to Europe." 
Septel will discuss Ambassador's March 15 meeting with the 
Foreign Minister, with additional input on these topics.  End 
Summary. 
 
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GAERC MEETING, CHINA ARMS AND HIZBALLAH 
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2.  (U) Strouhal provided the following responses to the 
issues to be discussed in the upcoming GAERC meeting in 
Brussels: 
 
A.  (C) CHINA ARMS EMBARGO:  Strouhal noted that the issue of 
lifting the EU's embargo on arms sales to China is not on the 
agenda of the March GAERC.  He added that Chinese Deputy 
Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had recently appealed to the 
Czechs to encourage the EU to lift the arms embargo during an 
official visit to Prague on March 10.  But the issue of human 
rights was not forgotten, as Yesui's visit coincided with a 
demonstration against Chinese occuption of Tibet which 
occurred on the same day outside of the MFA.  Strouhal said 
that the Chinese DFM made a well-reasoned argument for 
lifting the arms embargo, but that he believed that the EU 
would need to see some signs of progress on human rights from 
China before it would make a final decision to lift the 
embargo, since "they should not get something for nothing." 
 
B.  (C) CROATIA:  Strouhal said the Czechs are in the middle 
of the two EU camps concerning Croatia's Accession; the GOCR 
is strongly supportive of Croatia's Accession, but it is also 
a strong supporter of the ICTY and wants to see Gotovina 
delivered to The Hague.  Strouhal stated that the COREPER 
discussion last week showed EU firmness on this issue and he 
did not believe that the EU would agree to open negotiations 
until there is "full compliance" by Croatia with the ICTY. 
He added that there would not be a GAERC conclusion on this 
issue, but there would likely be a declaration reiterating 
the EU position towards Croatia. 
 
C.  (C) UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS:  Strouhal affirmed 
that Belarus and Cuba are among the priorities for the GOCR 
at the UNCHR (along with Burma, Sudan, Palestinian Authority 
and Israel).  The Czechs plan to take the floor in support of 
the Cuba resolution debate and will assist the USG in 
lobbying other countries to join them.  Strouhal said that 
there is still no EU consensus on Chechnya, Sudan or 
Uzbekistan. 
 
D.  (C) MIDDLE EAST PEACE:  Strouhal said the GAERC 
discussions on the Middle East this month would be largely 
focused on the current situation in Lebanon.  The Czechs 
believe that it is very important for Lebanon to "gain its 
sovereignty" and realize a full withdrawal of Syrian 
soldiers.  Also, during Solana's regular visits to the region 
he has been actively working with Egypt on the Gaza 
withdrawal and encouraging their role in the MEPP process. 
The first reports required under the action plans of the "EU 
Neighborhood Policy" for Egypt, Lebanon and three Caucausus 
states were recently published and should be on the GAERC 
agenda for April. 
 
E.  (C) HIZBALLAH:  Strouhal said that at the February EU 
GAERC, the Czech DFM in attendance spoke in favor of putting 
the designation of Hizballah as a terrorist organization on 
the next agenda, and he was strongly supported by the 
Netherlands.  This demonstrated that there is support for 
this issue at the ministerial level, but at the EU 
clearinghouse, which is a technical level group, several 
countries strongly oppose the designation, while an 
additional 5 remain more passively opposed.  Because of this, 
the EU is still a long way from reaching a consensus 
agreement on Hizballah; however, he added that written 
information on the organization is helpful to the discussion 
and thanked us for delivery of the non-paper (ref e). 
 
F.  (C) SUDAN:  Strouhal said the Czech Republic strongly 
agreed that Sudan must "fully and unconditionally" implement 
the peace agreements and reaffirmed the Czech plans (noted 
previously in paragraph C), that the GOCR supports a 
country-specific human rights resolution on Sudan at the 
UNCHR.  As for trying Sudanese human rights violators, he 
noted that the Czech Republic has signed, but not ratified, 
the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, 
which makes its position somewhat awkward within the EU, 
since it also does not yet legally recognize the ICC. 
 
G.  (C) RUSSIA:  Strouhal said that the main focus of EU 
efforts towards Russia are the four "spheres of cooperation" 
on which they are trying to reach agreement prior to the next 
EU-Russia summit.  Thus far, only the agreement on cultural 
cooperation has been completed, and troubles remain in the 
remaining three which concern internal, external and security 
issues.  The EU wants to implement these four agreements as a 
package, whereas the Russians want to implement them as they 
are negotiated and completed.  Right now, one of the areas of 
biggest friction is the link between "frozen conflicts" 
within the EU's new neighborhood policy.  On the issue of the 
border monitoring mission, Strouhal said that the EU was 
prepared to help with training of guards and other 
assistance, but that only a few EU member states support the 
idea of taking over the OSCE border monitoring mission and 
turning it into a ESDP action.  For now, the EU focus is on 
keeping the existing OSCE border mission in place. 
 
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IRAN AND SYRIA 
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3.  (C) Strouhal said that the EU member states were very 
pleased with the U.S. decision to actively and publicly 
support EU-3 diplomacy on discouraging Iran's nuclear 
ambitions (ref d).  It was, he said, "an important follow-up 
to President Bush's trip to Europe."  Strouhal was not aware 
of the planned visit of Syrian FM Sha'ara's visit to Italy on 
April 6, but he agreed that with the recent developments in 
Lebanon, that the timing was not appropriate for such a trip. 
 
Visit Prague's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/prague/index. cfm 
CABANISS