VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTC #0659/01 3031757
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 301757Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3426
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/DTRA ALEX WASHINGTON DC//OSAC PRIORITY

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000659 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCA, L/NPV, IO/MPR, 
SECDEF FOR OSD/GSA/CN,CP> 
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC 
COMMERCE FOR BIS (BROWN, DENYER AND CRISTOFARO) 
NSC FOR LUTES 
WINPAC FOR WALTER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CWC: WRAP-UP FOR OCTOBER 19-30, 2009 
 
REF: A. THE HAGUE 632 
     ¶B. THE HAGUE 617 
     ¶C. THE HAGUE 627 
     ¶D. THE HAGUE 628 
     ¶E. THE HAGUE 634 
     ¶F. THE HAGUE 638 
     ¶G. THE HAGUE 658 
 
This is CWC-67-09 
 
¶1. (U) This is an action request -- see para 14. 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Following the 58th Executive Council (refs 
A-F), no official meetings have yet been held.  The 
Western European and Others Group (WEOG) met on 
October 20 and 27, with little discussion.  Delreps 
met privately with Iraqi Delegate Muhanned Al- 
Miahi, and Secretary for the Policy-making Organs 
Alexander Khodakov on October 27 and October 29, 
respectively.  An initial analysis of turnover of 
the top structure of the Technical Secretariat (TS) 
was sent (ref G). 
 
---- 
WEOG 
---- 
 
¶3. (SBU) German Ambassador Werner Burkart chaired 
the WEOG meeting on October 20.  He and many other 
delegates congratulated Ambassador Uzumcu, with a 
general theme of praise for the process, the role 
of the Chairman, the conduct of all the candidates, 
and the consensus reached at EC-58.  The meeting 
was subdued, with little discussion of the EC 
issues and avoidance of analysis of the DG result, 
as five WEOG countries had fielded candidates. 
U.S. Delrep expressed appreciation for the hard-won 
compromise on low concentrations, for the EU's 
public questioning of Libya's deadline extension 
request, and for Ambassador Lohman's facilitation 
of the discussions with Iran on report language for 
the EC visit to the U.S. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Dutch Ambassador Lohman noted that the 
decision text for the budget may cause future 
difficulties; the Swiss co-facilitator did not 
attend this meeting.  The Swedish delegate noted 
that Libya had provided more information on their 
destruction plans following the EU request, and he 
briefed the group on the last-minute negotiations 
on the budget language that provided some 
safeguards that the Council would determine numbers 
of inspections and not the "industry cluster."  He 
also noted that with the major decisions (DG and 
budget) completed, issues such as Articles VII and 
XI will likely dominate the Conference of States 
Parties (CSP).  The French delegate described the 
EC session as "fruitful" but warned against the 
precedent of factual reports being changed and 
negotiations "behind the curtain" (with no 
specifics on which negotiations).  She said that 
WEOG as the next EC Chair should take a firm hand 
in guiding discussions.  The UK delegate credited 
the Chairman with greater control over procedures 
and the improvement in draft texts being circulated 
in a timely fashion.  She also noted that the 
Iranian delegation left the meeting angry and could 
become more difficult in the CSP.  Italian Delegate 
Cornacchia thanked everyone for their support to 
his facilitation on low concentrations. 
 
¶5. (U) At the next regular WEOG meeting on October 
27, Coordinator Ruth Surkau outlined the required 
appointments for the CSP and for the 2010 WEOG 
members for the Executive Council (EC).  She cited 
the traditional role played by the U.S. and WEOG 
Coordinator country (currently Germany) in 
representing WEOG in the General Committee of the 
CSP.  U.S. Delrep and German Ambassador Burkart 
stated the availability and willingness of their 
delegations to again play the role of CSP Vice 
Chair.  Surkau also asked for two delegations to 
volunteer for the WEOG seats on the Credentials 
Committee.  Surkau later sent an e-mail to all WEOG 
delegations under a silence procedure for the Vice 
Chairs and requesting volunteers for the 
Credentials Committee. Although no one volunteered 
at the meeting, Belgium, the UK and Greece have 
since expressed interest in  the Credentials 
positions.  On the question of who will chair the 
CSP, no delegation knew whether the Eastern 
European Group had made a final decision between 
Ambassadors Verba (Lithuania) and Tomova 
(Slovakia). 
 
¶6. (U) New WEOG members to be elected to the EC for 
a two-year term in 2010 will be: Canada, Denmark, 
Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.  The Benelux 
countries have revised the originally agreed 
rotation to have Luxembourg take the EC seat now; 
they have not decided yet whether Belgium will take 
the next rotation.  Surkau raised the question of 
interest in the EC Chair which will go to WEOG in 
May; no one responded. 
 
¶7. (U) The group had no news on upcoming 
consultations on Articles VII, XI, and X, nor on 
the EC Chairman's consultations on destruction 
deadlines or the Open Ended Working Group on 
Terrorism (Australian Chair Mike Byers was not 
present at the meeting).  UK Delegate Lee Litman 
announced that he will be chairing a meeting on 
universality the week of November 9 to discuss 
draft decision text for the CSP.  Irish Delegate 
Michael Hurley stated that he would be consulting 
with interested delegations on the parameters of 
"unforeseen circumstances" but did not intend to 
present anything to the CSP.  Surkau noted that the 
Russian statement on unforeseen circumstances had 
been issued as a national paper. (Del Note: At a 
later social engagement, Delrep was informed by 
Byers that he and Hurley are intending to hold 
consultations on their respective subjects on 
November 19.) 
 
-------------- 
IRAQ FOLLOW-UP 
-------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) On October 27, Delrep met with Iraqi 
Delegate Muhanned Al-Miahi to provide a summary of 
the early October bi-lateral meetings in Washington 
and to review the status of the TS visit to Iraq, 
assessment plans for the bunkers at Muthanna, and 
reporting requirements for recovered chemical 
weapons in Iraq. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Al-Miahi stated that, consistent with the 
discussions in Washington, the Iraqi delegation had 
formally requested the Director-General to consider 
sending TS representatives to Erbil, rather than 
Baghdad, to conduct the initial visit related to 
Iraq's destruction plans.  He indicated that this 
request was favorably received and that detailed 
logistics planning is underway, with a trip likely 
to occur in November, prior to the CSP. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Delrep and Al-Miahi reviewed 
presentations and materials pertaining to the 
status of the bunkers in Muthanna provided bi- 
Qstatus of the bunkers in Muthanna provided bi- 
laterally in Washington in October.  Al-Miahi said 
that he had reviewed these with his colleague 
Mohaned Alhelli from the Iraq National Monitoring 
Directorate during the week of the EC, and Alhelli 
believed that the information provided in the U.S. 
paper was not entirely correct based on his 
practical experience with and personal knowledge of 
the bunker contents.  Al-Miahi stated that Alhelli 
would return to The Hague on November 26 to attend 
the National Authority events and would remain 
through the CSP; he would be available to meet with 
the U.S. delegation and technical experts to 
further discuss the matter. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Al-Miahi and Delrep discussed a potential 
meeting with the TS to review the presently 
understood status of the bunkers in Muthanna and to 
verify the treaty requirements.  Al-Miahi stated 
that this could be arranged during Alhelli's visit 
and offered that the discussion might include 
potential donors.  Al-Miahi emphasized that the 
Iraqi delegation is interested in pursuing detailed 
discussions with potential international donors and 
coordinating their efforts (specifically mentioning 
Germany, the UK, and Canada). 
 
¶12. (SBU) Delrep and Al-Miahi discussed the 
destruction of and related reporting on recovered 
chemical weapons in Iraq.  Delrep communicated the 
issue that since their accession, Iraq is 
responsible for reporting to the TS on recovered 
chemical weapons.  As the United States continues 
to destroy such recovered weapons and report to the 
government of Iraq through the Ministry of Defense, 
as previously directed by the Iraq government, the 
information is not being reported to the TS as 
required.  Delrep explained that the United States 
is currently engaged in training a Chemical Defense 
Company (CDC) in Iraq to perform the destruction 
function with an aim to transition this activity to 
the Iraqi CDC in its entirety in April 2010. 
However, the reporting requirement presently sits 
squarely with Iraq and has since entry-in-force in 
February 2009. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Al-Miahi explained the challenges of 
communications between Iraqi ministries and further 
stated that no ministry is interested in taking 
responsibility for this information.  Delrep 
provided copies of communications to the Ministry 
of Defense and he expressed surprise that these 
would be sent to a personal email account, rather 
than a government email address, explaining that 
this was largely against routine procedure within 
the Iraqi government.  He stated that the recipient 
remains responsible for the receipt of this 
information.  However, he inquired about the status 
of an agreement in writing that outlined the 
arrangement between the U.S. and Iraq for these 
situations.  (DEL COMMENT: It is clear that the 
Iraqi officials need to be further educated on 
their responsibility to report to the TS and that 
this education is necessary at multiple levels 
within the GOI.  END COMMENT.) 
 
¶14. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST:  Del recommends that 
ISN/CB consider sending a technical or subject 
expert to meet with Alhelli in advance of the CSP. 
 
---------------- 
CSP PREPARATIONS 
---------------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) On October 29, Delreps met with Secretary 
for the Policy-making Organs Alexander Khodakov to 
discuss the agenda for the CSP and specifically to 
Qdiscuss the agenda for the CSP and specifically to 
alert Khodakov to the inclusion of a senior-ranking 
Department of Defense representative in the U.S. 
Delegation.  Delreps described that the National 
Statement would likely be delivered by two 
individuals with the majority of the address from 
the delegation Representative and a portion 
delivered by the Alternate, senior official. 
Khodakov discussed seating arrangements, order of 
delivery, and speech length, and concluded that 
this is an agreeable approach. 
 
¶16. (SBU) Khodakov projected that the General 
Debate would extend through Tuesday, December 1, 
and potentially into December 2.  He opined that 
although many of the agenda items are in good 
standing from the success of the last EC session, 
Article VII may pose a challenge as the mandate 
needs to be renewed by the CSP and stated that this 
may be linked politically with Article XI language. 
He said the Iranian request for a victims' network 
could re-surface, although it had not at EC-58, and 
he expects some Iranian mischief on the U.S. 
destruction deadlines.  Khodakov also noted that TS 
Head of Public Affairs Michael Luhan had requested 
that the agenda item on the Director-General's 
appointment be moved up to December 3 in order to 
receive greater media coverage and timely inclusion 
in the news cycle.  Khodakov expressed the hope 
that, with five days for the CSP rather than four, 
and after the completion of so much work at EC-58, 
including the DG decision and the budget, the CSP 
would run smoothly and possibly finish early. 
 
¶17. (U) BEIK SENDS. 
 
LEVIN