Cablegate: Israel's Membership in Groups at Wipo, Ilo, Unep,

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS VIENNA 000697

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR IO/T, IO/S, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC ELAB KIPR IS AU WIPO ILO
SUBJECT: ISRAEL'S MEMBERSHIP IN GROUPS AT WIPO, ILO, UNEP,
UN-HABITAT AND CND: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

REF: A) STATE 35846 B) BRUSSELS 850

This message is sensitive but unclassified.

1. (SBU) EconPolOff delivered ref a demarche on March 4 to
Dr. Helmut Boeck, new deputy head of the Austrian MFA's
International Organizations Bureau. He observed that some of
these issues have been pending since his last stint in the UN
Affairs Bureau seven years ago. Boeck told us that, to the
best of his knowledge, EU member states were still split on
this issue, but would seek to hammer out a common position.
He found the timing of our demarche propitious, since he will
be representing Austria at the CONUN meeting in Brussels on
March 8 (ref b).

2. (SBU) We argued that the draft EU-Israel Action Plan's
commitment to normalizing Israel's position in the UN, as
well as recent signs of progress in the Middle East Peace
Process, indicated that the time was right to act on Israeli
participation in WEOG groups in Nairobi and Vienna, WIPO
group B and ILO IMEC. Boeck seemed impressed by this, and
promised to convey our points to other offices in MFA with
specific responsibility for ILO, UNEP, UN-Habitat, CND and
WIPO matters. (Note: Post is also providing courtesy copies
of the demarche to those offices and will engage them.) We
also requested a follow-up meeting with Boeck after his
return from the CONUN session in Brussels.

Brown

© Scoop Media