US embassy cable - 05HELSINKI949

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000949 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PTER, SY, FI, Finland-Syria 
SUBJECT: GOF CONCERNED ABOUT SYRIA BUT HESITANT ABOUT 
ISOLATING SARG 
 
REF: STATE 159137 
 
Classified By: PolChief Gregory Thome, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) DCM delivered subject demarche to MFA Undersecretary 
for Political Affairs Markus Lyra.  The GOF has not received 
a request from Syria for a high level meeting at the UNGA, 
but Lyra said he would communicate our request to Finland's 
UNGA delegation.  He fully agreed that Syria has failed to 
take adequate steps to stop those using its territory to 
support the insurgency in Iraq and that its human rights 
record remains very poor.  Lyra described Syria's withdrawal 
from Palestine as one positive step, but lamented that Syrian 
hard-liners continue to quash nearly all internal structural 
reform efforts. 
 
2. (C) That said, Lyra expressed concern about the potential 
impact of further isolating Syria.  The SARG clearly feels 
isolated by the international community already, he said, and 
this has prompted it to seek closer ties with Russia, China 
and Ukraine -- all developments that Finland does not view as 
being in its own interests.  Lyra agreed that the 
international community must stand firm in demanding that the 
SARG change its behavior and implement structural reforms. 
However, he stopped short of endorsing isolation as the means 
of communicating those demands. 
MACK