VZCZCXRO0316
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHGV #0913 2991800
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261800Z OCT 09
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9765
INFO RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 4647
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0905
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 6916
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 5740
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 6549
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 8539
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 2052
RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KYIV 1263
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 0731
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2017
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 1078
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 1826
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS GENEVA 000913
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED
SIPDIS
DEPT PASS USTR
TEL AVIV FOR AMB, DCM, AND ECON
USTR FOR CKLEIN, AVENKATARAMAN,SFRANCESKI, MMOWREY
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD WTRO ECON PREL KWBG IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELIS ON PA BID FOR WTO OBSERVER STATUS
Reftels: (a) Jerusalem 1607 (B) Secstate 99831 (c) Geneva00783
(d) Tel Aviv 02166 (e) Geneva 00839
1.(SBU) The head of the Israeli Mission's trade team called Charge
this afternoon to provide a readout on their consultation last week
with General Council Chair (GC) Matus. He said that Matus made a
pitch for an "interim solution" that would include two agenda items
at the November 17 General Council meeting. One agenda item would
deal with observership at the Ministerial Conference and his hope
would be that this request (which has yet to be made) could be
agreed. The other agenda item would address the PA's request for
observer status in the GC. Under this item, Matus would expect a
substantive discussion but not a decision. Matus told the Israelis
that one Arab state is pushing him hard to place this on the agenda.
They have also picked up that the EC might place this issue on the
agenda. For their part, the Israeli's repeated their objection to
the PA's observer status in the GC but they did not speak to the
issue of observership at the Ministerial Conference.
2. (SBU) Our Israeli interlocutor thought it likely that his
authorities could agree to observership at the Ministerial
Conference but that they would need something in return. He
indicated that they were hoping that this something would be that
the GC request would go away for a while and that they would not
have to face this again in the new year. However, it sounded like
they were still considering a range of options.
SHARK