VZCZCXYZ0014
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #0980 3062202
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 022202Z NOV 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7500
INFO RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0312
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1455
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 1381
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 2340
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 1685

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000980 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL UNSC UK IR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS UK FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Ambassador Rice on October 27 met with 14 
members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK 
Parliament.  The Parliamentarians, who represented the 
Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour, raised Iran, the 
Middle East, U.S. relations with Russia, Afghanistan, and 
concern over legal challenges to Security Council sanctions 
regimes. The Committee members met in New York with key 
missions such as the U.S., France and Russia, after which 
they planned to travel to Washington for meetings with 
counterparts in Congress as well as with officials in the 
Department of State, Pentagon, and with staff of the 
Brookings Institutions. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) At the request of the UK Mission to the UN, 
Ambassador Rice on October 27 met with the 14-member Foreign 
Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament to discuss U.S. 
foreign policy.  The Committee members traveled to New York 
to meet with key missions, such as the U.S., France and 
Russia, following which they planned to travel to Washington 
for meetings with their counterparts in Congress as well as 
with officials in the Department of State, Pentagon, and with 
staff of the Brookings Institutions.  Mike Gapes, the 
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, moderated the 
question and answer session.  The first question posed to 
Ambassador Rice concerned whether the new U.S. approach to 
the United Nations was a tactical approach or a strategic 
policy move.  Ambassador Rice said the UN was an 
indispensable if imperfect institution and that the broad 
range of transnational challenges could only be addressed in 
a multilateral forum like the UN.  She reviewed the six key 
ways in which the US approach to the UN has changed and which 
she had outlined in her speech at New York University on 
August 12. 
 
¶3. (SBU) One member said they had just met with the Russian 
Deputy Permanent Representative, who said an Iranian move to 
a militarized nuclear program would be a redline, but that 
diplomacy was the only path Russia was prepared to take, a 
position the Committee member described as an inherent 
contradiction.  Ambassador Rice noted that Russia is more 
vested in this issue than in the past.  She said that Russia 
clearly prefers a diplomatic solution to the challenges of 
the Iranian nuclear program, although higher authorities in 
Moscow may recognize that diplomacy alone might not be a 
sufficient strategy.  Another Committee member inquired why 
the U.S. and UK governments had not shown greater enthusiasm 
for Russian offers to enrich Iran's uranium.  Ambassador Rice 
responded that in the absence of any real dialogue with Iran, 
the U.S. views concrete discussions of proposals as 
premature. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Regarding Russia, a Committee member remarked that 
President Obama is "resetting" relations with Moscow but that 
in his view the Russians had not reciprocated.  Ambassador 
Rice answered that some positive steps, such as the decision 
to reorient the missile-defense shield in Europe, have not 
been undertaken as favors to Russia but were made after 
reviewing national priorities and threats.  That these policy 
reviews have helped improved the bilateral relationship, she 
said, is obviously welcome. 
 
¶5. (SBU) One Committee member remarked that interested 
parties are awaiting a decision from President Obama on how 
the U.S. will implement a new policy toward Afghanistan, 
particularly since the British public was growing anxious 
about the UK's commitment given that the public "just see 
bodybags coming home."  Ambassador Rice said President Obama 
noted in March that the U.S. would examine its strategy after 
the elections in Afghanistan.  She said that the U.S. is also 
taking heightened casualties, but the U.S. is not considering 
downsizing its commitment to Afghanistan. 
 
¶6. (SBU) One participant raised the UK's concern that legal 
actions in the European Union could undermine some sanctions 
regimes of the Security Council, particularly the 1267 
Committee.  Ambassador Rice said the U.S. shared those 
concerns, and the Administration is working with the 
Department of Treasury to scrub sanctions lists to remove 
individuals who should not be designated. 
Rice