VZCZCXRO5496
OO RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHRL #0331/01 0791242
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 201242Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3631
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0615
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDIR/IRAN RPO DUBAI
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0393
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0695

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000331 
 
SIPDIS, NEA/IR, EUR/CE, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2019 
TAGS: PREL PTER SNAR PHUM GM IR AF IS GZ WE
SUBJECT: IRANIAN MAJLES DELEGATION TALKS REGIONAL ISSUES 
DURING BERLIN VISIT 
 
REF: BERLIN 165 
 
BERLIN 00000331  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Jeffrey Rathke 
for reasons 1.4(b)/(d). 
 
¶1.  (C)  SUMMARY:  Iran Majles Foreign Affairs Committee 
chair Alaeddin Boroujerdi led a Majles delegation visit to 
Berlin March 4-6, meeting with Interior Minister Schaeuble, 
as well as a variety of senior Chancellery officials and 
Bundestag MPs.  Boroujerdi expressed Iran's interest in 
increased cooperation on Afghanistan but was critical of 
NATO's current approach.  He was pleased by the U.S. intent 
to invite Iran to the March 31 Afghanistan conference, 
calling it a "good signal."  On Israel-Palestine issues, he 
maintained the Iranian hardline approach; he also expressed 
concern at  Germany's position on the MEK and PJAK.  Contacts 
say German interlocutors challenged a number of hardline 
Iranian positions, with Schaueble being particularly blunt in 
his criticism of Iran's stance on the nuclear issue and 
Israel.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (C)  A Majles delegation led by Iranian Foreign Affairs 
Committee chair Alaeddin Boroujerdi met March 4-6 with a 
variety of German government and Bundestag interlocutors.  In 
addition to meeting Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, 
Boroujerdi also met with Chancellery Intelligence Chief 
Fritsche as well as key Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee 
members Ruprecht Polenz (CDU), Eckart von Klaeden (CDU), and 
Rolf Muetzenich (SPD).  According to press reports, 
Boroujerdi was joined by fellow Majles MPs Fatemeh Alia, 
Seyyed Ali Aghazadeh, and Ahmad Avaie.  In separate 
conversations, Post contacts affiliated with the Foreign 
Affairs Committee, Interior Ministry, and Chancellery have 
provided meeting readouts. 
 
¶3.  (C) POSITIVE IRANIAN REACTION TO CONFERENCE INVITATION, 
BUT QUESTIONS REMAIN ON U.S. POLICY:  German-Iranian 
Parliamentary Friendship Committee chair and SPD MP Rolf 
Muetzenich told PolOff that Boroujerdi had called Secretary 
Clinton's intent to invite Iran to the March 31 Afghanistan 
conference "interesting" and thought that Iran would be 
clever to accept.  Boroujerdi told Muetzenich that in his 
personal opinion, the invitation was a good signal from the 
U.S.  Inquiring about German views of the Obama 
Administration, Boroujerdi told Muetzenich that Iran does not 
yet have a complete picture of U.S. policy, and is instead 
trying to piece together isolated USG statements.  Muetzenich 
commented that he believes Boroujerdi belongs to the circle 
of pragmatic hardliners around Majles Speaker and former 
nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (for more on Larijani's 
recent positions, see reftel). 
 
¶4.  (C) FOCUS ON AFGHANISTAN:  Boroujerdi focused largely on 
Afghanistan and adhered closely to the normal IRIG script by 
combining calls for increased cooperation with stark 
criticism of NATO efforts.  Boroujerdi underscored Iran's 
efforts on Afghanistan, particularly on counternarcotics as 
drugs make their way from Afghanistan to Europe via Iran. 
According to a CDU staffer who attended the Majles 
delegation's meeting with the Foreign Affairs committee, 
Boroujerdi told interlocutors that 3400 Iranian soldiers have 
been killed on the Afghan-Iranian border and attributed these 
deaths to the drug trade.  Boroujerdi added that the Iranian 
MFA, like the U.S. and Germany, has expanded its Afghanistan 
team but did not indicate that a special representative 
position had been created.  German contacts have commented 
that counternarcotics appears to them to be the clearest 
avenue for increased cooperation with Iran.  According to a 
Chancellery contact, Germany is willing to offer Iran support 
in addressing the counternarcotics problem, calling this type 
of support as "a door through which we can walk" to address 
other issues. 
 
¶5.  (C)  Boroujerdi claimed the current NATO approach has 
strengthened the Taliban, a point on which Bundestag 
interlocutors challenged him.  Boroujerdi told Foreign 
Affairs committee members that NATO needs to counter the 
perception that it is an occupying power, and demonstrate 
that "it will not be there forever."  He also criticized 
attempts to differentiate between different factions of the 
Taliban: "there are no good Taliban", declared Boroujerdi. 
 
¶6.  (C)  GERMAN INTERLOCUTORS CRITICIZE IRANIAN HARDLINE 
STANCE ON ISRAEL, PUT BALL IN IRAN'S COURT:  On 
 
BERLIN 00000331  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Israeli-Palestinian issues, Boroujerdi had a hard line, 
telling the Bundestag Foreign Affairs committee that not 
inviting Iran to the February Sharm el-Sheikh conference had 
been a "grave error."  Boroujerdi added that reconstruction 
in Gaza is "impossible" without Hamas, as no long-term 
solution is possible if certain groups are left out.  When 
challenged by a Greens Party Foreign Affairs Committee MP 
about Hamas's refusal to renounce violence, Boroujerdi called 
for all Palestinians to be given the right of return and 
called for a "free referendum" under UN observation.  Foreign 
Affairs Committee Chair Ruprecht Polenz told Boroujerdi that 
such demands are an attempt to roll back history and that 
Iran is isolated in its position, as Arab countries have 
accepted the Arab Peace Plan.  Similarly, Interior Minister 
Schaeuble turned down Boroujerdi's invitation to visit Iran, 
noting that while he would like to visit, the current 
political situation does not allow him to do so until Iran 
changes its position on the nuclear issue and recognizes 
Israel's right to exist.  Muetzenich told PolOff he had also 
raised a number of German concerns with Boroujerdi, ranging 
from new IRIG statements denying the Holocaust to the 
continuing persecution of Iran's Bahai community. 
 
¶7.  (C)  COUNTERTERRORISM: MEK AND PJAK:  Boroujerdi also 
raised the presence of Mujaheddin-e Khalgh (MEK) and the 
PKK-affiliated PJAK in Germany at both the Interior Ministry 
and the Chancellery.  Boroujerdi told Schaeuble that Germany 
is not doing enough to combat the two terrorist organizations 
despite Iran providing Germany information on the groups. 
Schaeuble told Boroujerdi that Germany is unwilling to 
extradite the PJAK's self-proclaimed leader, Abdulrahman 
Hajji Ahmadi, who is a German citizen.  Schaeuble also told 
Boroujerdi that while both the MEK and PJAK are under 
observation by German law enforcement agencies, the two 
groups have not committed prosecutable deeds with evidence 
that would stand up in court. 
 
¶8.  (C)  COMMENT: Boroujerdi's positions indicate the 
existence of an Iranian openness for dialogue on Afghanistan, 
but that all discussions will be accompanied by a good deal 
of "anti-imperialist" sloganeering--a line similar to that 
which his fellow pragmatic hardliner Larijani took at the 
Munich Security Conference (reftel).  Far more difficult are 
Israel-Palestine issues, where Boroujerdi's message is 
largely identical to those of the hardest elements of the 
Iranian ruling elite.  Based on the variety of reports, it 
seems German interlocutors were more willing to push back on 
controversial topics than in the past. 
Koenig