US embassy cable - 05VIENNA1461

C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 001461 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARN, IO/P, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/04/2015 
 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KPAO, LE, SY, AU, EUN 
SUBJECT: SYRIAN COMPLIANCE WITH UNSCR 1559: AUSTRIAN 
 
RESPONSE 
 
REF: STATE 78006 
 
Classified By: ECONOMIC-POLITICAL COUNSELOR GREGORY E. PHILLIPS 
 
REASONS: 1.4 (B) AND (D) 
 
1.  (C) Embassy Vienna  conveyed reftel demarche on April 29 
 
to MFA A/S-equivalent for the Middle East and Africa Ralph 
 
Scheide.  EconPolCouns and Pol Unit Chief followed up with 
 
Scheide on May 3.  Scheide reported discussing the matter of 
 
the EU-Syria Association Agreement with his German 
 
counterpart recently.  It was not so much that the Agreement 
 
was "on hold," Scheide said, but that the procedure for 
 
concluding it had stalled.  Scheide thought it necessary to 
 
strike a balance.  While it was clear that Syria still had 
 
much to do to comply fully with UNSCR 1559, it was important 
 
to give Syria positive incentives.  "Syria deserves some 
 
credit for its withdrawal," Scheide said. 
 
2.  (C) Scheide pointed out that the Syrian Foreign Minister 
 
would likely attend the Euro-Med Ministerial in Luxembourg on 
 
May 29.  While the Minister would probably express annoyance 
 
about the lack of progress on the Association Agreement, 
 
Scheide thought that "we can live with that.  Better to let 
 
him come and complain than to disinvite him."  The EU could 
 
then make it clear to the Syrians that the EU was prepared to 
 
continue to process as long as Syria stayed on the path to 
 
compliance. 
 
3.  (C) Scheide and his Syria/Lebanon office director, 
 
Wolfgang Lapuh, reiterated that Austria was ready to join a 
 
consensus on an EU Clearinghouse listing of Hizbollah as a 
 
terrorist organization and regretted that the most recent 
 
Clearinghouse had not been able to take a decision to do so. 
 
The disarming of militias would prove to be one of the most 
 
difficult tasks in achieving compliance with UNSCR 1559, they 
 
thought.  The UN verification mission would surely cite this 
 
as unaccomplished in its report; it would then be up to the 
 
Secretary General to give his assessment. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
4.  (C) Regarding the date for elections, Lapuh noted that it 
 
was now impossible to keep to the constitutional 30-day 
 
deadline for promulgating a new election law and still hold 
 
the elections in May.  The old election law was biased in 
 
favor of pro-Syrian forces, he observed. 
 
Brown