VZCZCXRO9109
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHHM RUEHIK RUEHJO RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV
DE RUEHLO #2340 1700734
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190734Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY LONDON
TO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4035
INFO RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0027

UNCLAS LONDON 002340 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
TRESAURY FOR OFAC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC ELAB CU UK
SUBJECT: CUBA SOLIDARITY GROUP MAY FORCE SANCTIONS SHOWDOWN 
WITH HILTON HOTELS 
 
REF: (A) LONDON 525 (B) LONDON 764 
 
¶1.  Summary: Hilton Hotels in the UK believes its efforts to 
obey US sanctions on Cuba, while simultaneously respecting UK 
law banning discrimination based on nationality, will soon be 
tested by a pro-Cuban government NGO.  The NGO will seek to 
check a Cuban delegation into a Hilton hotel in the UK. 
Hilton has also lost conference business from two major UK 
unions who are not satisfied by Hilton's attempts to walk a 
line between US and UK law.   Hilton has requested a license 
from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to do 
business with Cubans in the UK.  Post has sought to help 
Hilton by explaining to UK audiences what is and is not 
covered by US sanctions.  See action request in para 6.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2.  Hilton VP for Communications Linda Bain contacted 
EconCouns June 7 to update post on the Cuba Sanctions issue. 
She and Hilton International CEO Ian Carter with the UK 
parliament's All Party Cuba Committee at the latter's 
invitation on May 22.  When Carter and Bain arrived they 
discovered the Committee had also invited the Cuban 
Ambassador and the Cuba Solidarity Movement, an NGO that 
militates on behalf of the Castro regime.  According to Bain, 
the Committee was not hostile, but considered inadequate 
Hilton's policy of instructing its UK staff to honor local 
law forbidding discrimination on the basis of nationality. 
They want Hilton to go further and declare that they will not 
enforce US sanctions on Cuba in their UK hotels.  Carter 
explained that Hilton could not go on record as defying US 
law.  Committee members said they would protest the US 
sanctions with the relevant minister as soon as Gordon Brown 
forms his new cabinet. 
 
¶3.  The representatives of the Cuba Solidarity Movement were 
more hostile.  They told Hilton "they were getting what they 
deserved." They strongly hinted they would force a test case 
by attempting to register Cubans at a UK Hilton Hotel. 
Hilton suspects this could happen around the time of the 
annual Cuban holidays of the National Revolutionary Festival 
on July 25 - 27. 
 
¶4.  Bain again noted they are hoping for a favorable ruling 
on their license request from OFAC to allow them operate in 
conformance with UK law.   Bain also reported that two 
important trade union customers of Hilton, the GMB and UNISON 
have said they will cancel all conference and other business 
with Hilton until this issue is resolved. 
 
¶5.  Comment:  Hilton's case has been linked in the UK with a 
reported decision by Barclay's Bank UK to close its Cuban 
accounts.  Barclay's action is interpreted as a response to 
US pressure, even an illegal attempt to extend US law 
extraterritorially.  Lumped with the Hilton case, it serves 
to raise resentment against the US whenever they are raised. 
Embassy has sought to defuse with UK audiences the issue of 
the extraterritorial reach of US sanctions on Cuba, while 
stressing the reasons we impose sanctions.   Drawing on 
assurances from OFAC, for example, that it played no role in 
Barclay's decision to close its Cuba business, we have 
briefed Members of Parliament and the Trade Union Congress 
that the US does not impose its sanctions obligations 
extraterritorially on non-US persons.  We explained that if 
Barclays has shuttered its Cuba operations, it was a business 
decision, perhaps (we hope) driven by the higher complexity 
of doing business there in the face of US sanctions. This 
does not constitute extrat 
erritorial sanctions, however.  End Comment 
 
¶6.  Action Request: Hilton's case is likely to come to a head 
soon and will have an impact on other US hotel chains, and 
not just in the UK.  Request Department work with OFAC to 
adjudicate Hilton's license request as soon as possible.  End 
Summary and Action Request. 
 
Visit London's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm 
TUTTLE