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P 261445Z MAR 07
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SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/AGS, INR/EU, AND EUR/PPD FOR YVETTE SAINT-ANDRE 
 
 
OSD FOR COMMANDER CHAFFEE 
 
WHITEHOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO AU OPRC
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 26, 2007 
 
 
Darabos Hoping for Eurofighter Pullout 
 
¶1. Defense Minister Norbert Darabos (SPOe) is still confident he has 
legal grounds for a cancellation of the Eurofighter purchase 
contract. A complete backing-out of the deal continues to be "our 
number one priority," he stressed on Austrian television. "Intensive 
negotiations" to that effect will start next week. According to 
Darabos, a considerable part of the contract had "obviously been 
dictated," and it was therefore necessary to investigate whether 
that "violated customary norms." Darabos also reiterated his view 
that his predecessor is to blame for the missing software licenses, 
without which the jets cannot be delivered to Austria. 
Mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich suggests the Defense Minister 
is playing for time in the controversy over the Eurofighters: 
Speaking on ORF TV, he underscored the jets would not be delivered 
to Austria as long as the software licenses have not been obtained 
from the US. Darabos believes it is unlikely the licenses will be 
given before June 1, when the planes are scheduled to arrive in 
Austria. The Minister added that in addition to pursuing his "top 
priority," a potential withdrawal from the deal, he would also 
continue looking at other options, including the purchase of fewer 
jets as well as rebates on maintenance costs. 
Liberal daily Der Standard meanwhile in a front-page report suggests 
the United States is taking its time awarding the necessary software 
licenses. However, the daily quotes Darabos, it is not the US that 
is to blame for the situation, but the previous Austrian government. 
 
 
 
Leaders Sign Berlin Declaration 
 
¶2. On the occasion of celebrations to mark 50 years of the European 
Union, the 27 member states emphasized their continuing commitment 
to the EU. Heads of state and government meeting in the German 
capital on Sunday signed the "Berlin Declaration," paving the way 
for institutional reforms by 2009. There is no mention of the EU 
constitution in the declaration, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel 
called for a summit to address the crisis over the EU Constitution. 
She will present a timetable "setting the course for key 
institutional issues" by June, she stressed, and warned against a 
failure of EU reforms. 
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised the German EU 
Presidency, stating on Sunday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and 
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier "could not have done 
a better job." ORF online news quotes Gusenbauer as saying that the 
Germans "are highly professional, indeed. Merkel and Steinmeier are 
a good team and are doing their jobs in a sensible manner; they are 
keeping people in the loop and maintain direct contacts." Gusenbauer 
also emphasized that the Berlin Declaration would provide an 
important impulse for the European constitutional treaty. He said 
Austria is very concerned that the treaty come to fruition and that 
it would contribute to the democratization of the EU. 
 
 
US Diplomat on Missile Shield 
 
¶3. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Pekala explained 
plans for a missile defense system, which the United States wants to 
put up in European countries including Poland and the Czech 
Republic. When asked about widespread European opposition to the 
plan, DAS Pekala underscored that if Europeans are made aware of 
America's argument that the defense shield will make Europe more 
stable and secure and help deepen transatlantic relations, they 
might be more supportive of the idea. 
In an interview with centrist daily Die Presse, Mark A. Pekala, 
Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of 
European and Eurasian Affairs, explains US plans for a missile 
defense system in Europe. In the debate on the issue, the US wants 
to "talk about the basic facts, i.e. the threats, the defense 
system's structure, with our allies in NATO, our partners and 
Russia." The US has in fact been "discussing missile defense with 
NATO and Russia for years. Understanding the facts will help people 
understand our argument that this system will provide more security 
and stability for Europe and boost the transatlantic relations. A 
secure Europe means a secure US, and vice versa." The United States 
is also trying to "take Russia's concerns into account. We have 
explained to them that this defense shield is not an offensive 
system that is directed against them," (...) and "have even offered 
Moscow cooperation on missile defense." In fact, the planned shield 
is directed against Iran. The country could be capable of developing 
long-range missiles by 2010 or 2015, which could reach targets in 
Europe and the United States. But the missile defense shield would 
give us a good chance to shoot down these Iranian rockets." Pekala 
dismissed concerns the US was trying to "drive a wedge between 
European countries" with the defense system: "On the contrary; we 
consider Europe a partner with whom we want to achieve much in the 
world, be it the stabilization of Afghanistan, development in Iraq, 
further democratization in other areas of the world, or humanitarian 
aid and peacekeeping missions, and much more. Creating a rift within 
Europe would be counterproductive to all these goals." 
 
 
Freud Would Have Had Fun 
 
¶4. ... headlines an Austrian daily, reporting on the opening of an 
exhibition at the Vienna Freud Museum last week. The show presents 
80 cartoons dealing with the topic of psychoanalysis, published in 
The New Yorker magazine since the 1920s. US Embassy Vienna's Deputy 
Chief of Mission Scott Kilner spoke at the exhibition's opening, 
wrote liberal daily Der Standard on March 24. 
 
 
Iran Defiant Despite Sanctions 
 
¶5. Iran says it is unimpressed by the tightening of United Nations 
sanctions in the dispute over its nuclear ambitions. Pressure and 
intimidation would not alter his country's stance, Foreign Minister 
Manouchehr Mottaki stressed. However, Iran was not seeking 
confrontation; merely asserting its unalienable rights, he added. 
Suspension of its uranium enrichment activities was therefore not an 
option. The UN Security Council voted Saturday to tighten sanctions 
against Iran, including an embargo on weapons exports and an 
expansion of the existing freeze of Iranian financial assets. 
Liberal daily Der Standard in a feature article says the 
international community's harsher tone towards Tehran has so far 
failed to be successful. The new sanctions show increased resistance 
of the world community to Iran's nuclear program: The UNSC 
resolution is "an appropriate and necessary reaction to the fact 
that Iran continues to defy the international community's will," 
German Foreign Minister Fran-Walter Steinmeier underscored. And US 
Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, said 
that his government would push for a third and even tougher 
resolution, should Iran remain unrelenting regarding its nuclear 
ambitions. Tehran, however, is not prepared to give up uranium 
enrichment: Even the strongest punitive measures could not force his 
country to give up its atomic program, the Iranian Foreign Minister 
stressed. 
 
The daily's foreign affairs editor Gudrun Harrer argues that the 
"degree of destructiveness, especially self-destructiveness which 
the regime in Teheran is showing these days, is frightening. All the 
hopes, which especially the Iranians themselves might have 
entertained, that the forces which gained influence when President 
Ahmadinejad was elected are already waning, have so far proved vain. 
On the contrary, those forces are on the rise. (...) On Friday, Iran 
lost even its last supporters. Even the position held by Arab and 
Islamic states and which is directed against Israel - in favor of a 
nuclear-free Middle East - was given up without resistance by Qatar 
and Indonesia. (...) If Iran continues to pursue escalation for too 
long, it will become difficult to abandon it." 
 
Foreign affairs writer for independent provincial daily Salzburger 
Nachrichten Thomas Spang comments that Under-Secretary Nicholas 
Burns, "who was instrumental in devising Iran Resolution 1747, 
concluded that the US and its European partners had achieved more 
than they could have expected. To prove this, Washington referred to 
the support of three important non-permanent members of the Security 
Council that gave up their reservations with regard to new 
sanctions. (...) However, if the US does not want to lose its allies 
it can only move step by step. Washington should launch a diplomatic 
initiative aimed at the Mullah regime. To do so, however, the Bush 
administration would have to show a readiness to not just talk with 
others about Iran, but negotiate directly with its potentates. Such 
talks could generate a solution to the nuclear crisis." 
 
And, foreign affairs editor for centrist daily Die Presse Christian 
Ultsch says that the strategy to use "gentle pressure" to get the 
Iranians to abandon their uranium enrichment program, "has not been 
successful so far and it won't be successful in the medium-term 
future either. There is everything to indicate that the Iranians 
want to step up their nuclear efforts so as to have the bomb within 
reach - possibly to backpedal at the last moment and then capitalize 
on this decision and accept the West's lucrative cooperation offer. 
Teheran knows that the US is not in a position to open another war 
front. Therefore the mullahs will continue their poker game as long 
as the UN sanctions are not too damaging." 
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has denounced Iran's detention of 
15 British navy personnel as unjustified and wrong. He stressed that 
Tehran's claim that the sailors were trespassing in Iranian 
territorial waters when they were seized on Friday was untrue. 
British officials have not been told where the group is being held. 
Iran has meanwhile accused the sailors of espionage. The incident is 
particularly explosive, given the ongoing tensions over Iran's 
nuclear program, Austrian media comment. 
Kilner