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DE RUEHBR #0752/01 1171841
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O 271841Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8785
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 000752 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2017 
TAGS: PREL BR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL:  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON IRANIAN 
PRESENCE AT ARMS SHOW 
 
REF: BRASILIA 705 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR DENNIS HEARNE. REASONS: 1.4 (B)(D). 
 
¶1. (C) Per reftel, Mission officers have received additional 
and sometimes conflicting information in recent days on the 
events surrounding the closing of the Iranian Defense 
Industries (DIO) stand at the Latin American Air and Defense 
(LAAD) show in Rio on 16-17 April, following the realization 
by the Brazilian government and event organizers that the DIO 
display was in violation of UNSCR 1747 strictures. 
Specifically, it has been difficult for mission officers to 
determine the nature of Brazilian government intervention in 
the affair, i.e., did the Brazilian foreign or defense 
ministeries actually order the closing of the stand directly 
or engage with the Iranian Government at any time, or stand 
back and leave the closing of the DIO booth to the show's 
UK-based events organizing firm, Reed Ltd.? 
 
¶2. (C) PolCouns has been in contact with British Embassy DCM 
Hugo Shorter throughout the DIO-related events, and received 
from Shorter on 27 April what we believe is the most detailed 
accounting of the episode attainable.  The key points of 
Shorter's account follow: 
 
--Shorter said that he was contacted by phone at around 1800 
on Monday, 16 April, by an official of the Reed events 
organizing company who was in Rio preparing for LAAD's 
official opening on 17 April.  The Reed executive was alarmed 
to find an Iranian DIO stand preparing to open at LAAD, a 
violation of UNSCR 1747.   Shorter was clear in saying that 
this alert from the Reed man in Rio was the first information 
the British Government had received on Iranian participation 
in LAAD. 
 
--Shorter immediately contacted the Brazilian Ministry for 
External Relations (MRE) about the development.  MRE 
Assistant Secretary for International Organizations (and new 
UN Permrep-designate) Maria Luiza Viotti called Shorter back 
around 2000 in the evening and stated: (1) the MRE had been 
unaware of the Iranian presence at LAAD, (2) Brazil's 
Ministry of Defense had been informed that evening by MRE and 
the Brazilian Chief of Defense Staff had indicated the 
Iranian stand would be shut down. 
 
--On the morning of 17 April, Shorter was contacted by Reed 
and told Reed directors had ordered the immediate closing of 
the Iranian stand.  Shorter said it was his understanding 
that Reed had taken the action based on corporate decisions 
and contact from the Brazilian Defense Ministry.  (Note:  We 
have heard similar accounts from the French and Israeli 
ambassadors here, though they indicate a more passive MRE 
role vis-a-vis Reed in ordering the closing of the DIO stand. 
 End note.) Shorter said the British Embassy Defense attache 
was at LAAD and reported that some DIO models and brochures 
remained out on the floor when the show opened at 1000 am, 
but the DIO stand had its electricty shut off and "CLOSED" 
signs posted on it before noon, and was clearly out of 
commission shortly thereafter. 
 
--During the day on April 17 Shorter spoke twice with Maria 
Narazeth Farani, Chief of Staff to Foreign Minister Amorim. 
He asked whether the MRE had protested the issue to the 
Iranian Government or taken any additional action.  Farani 
told Shorter adamantly that the GOB had fulfilled its 
obligations under the UNSCR by contacting its Defense 
Ministry and the event organizer to order the closing of the 
DIO stand.   Shorter subsequently learned from MRE senior 
contacts that Brazil's ambassador in Tehran had been called 
in by the GOI to hear its official protest at being invited 
to an event and then being shut down, but the GOB Ambassador 
 
BRASILIA 00000752  002 OF 002 
 
 
had noted that any invitation had been issued well before 
UNSCR 1747 and the GOI must have been aware of the 
resolution's ramification.  Iran's ambassador in Brasilia 
also met with MRE officials to lodge a protest.  Both 
diplomatic actions were at the Iranians' initiative, not the 
GOB's, Shorter noted. 
 
--In a follow-up meeting on 27 April with Santiago Mourao, 
the director of the MRE's Directorate for Arms Control and 
Sensitive Technology, Shorter asked whether the GOB had taken 
or would pursue any action on seizures of DIO assets.  Mourao 
said Brazil's Central Bank financial crimes investigations 
unit (COAF) had not located any DIO financial assets in 
Brazil.  With regard to the models and brochures at the DIO 
stand in Rio, Mourao said these were regarded as financially 
inconsequential by the GOB, and had not been seized.  Mourao 
said the GOB may forward a report on the assets to the UN 
sanctions committee. 
 
--Mourao stoutly defended GOB responses in the case, saying 
the GOB had worked to shut down the DIO stand as soon as it 
was aware of its presence at LAAD.  He said the Iranians 
should be held responsible for the event, but also noted the 
GOB had no indication the GOI had deliberately staged the 
event to provoke or embarrass Brazil.  The GOB's positions on 
Iran's nuclear program are well-known and documented at the 
IAEA and the UN, and Iran could have been under no illusion 
that the GOB would not honor UNSC requirements, Mourao said. 
 
--In sum, Shorter said the foreign ministry clearly had not 
blocked the closing of the DIO stand,  though its actions in 
coordinating the closure perhaps could have been more direct 
and proactive, and it has taken no action on asset seizures. 
 
Chicola