Cablegate: Support for Iraqi Transitional Government:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS VIENNA 001472
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/I, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ AU EUN
SUBJECT: SUPPORT FOR IRAQI TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT:
AUSTRIAN RESPONSE
REF: STATE 79107
This message is sensitive but unclassified.
1. (SBU) EconPolCouns and Pol Unit Chief delivered reftel
demarche to MFA head of Middle East/Africa Bureau Ralph
Scheide on May 3. Scheide noted that Chancellor Schuessel
had sent a congratulatory message to Prime Minister
al-Ja'afari, and that President Fischer had sent a greeting
to President Talabani inviting him to visit Austria. Scheide
said that the conclusions of the April 25 EU General Affairs
and External Relations Council (GAERC) had summed up European
and Austrian views on the ITG, He thought it unlikely that
the GoA would issue its own statement on the inauguration of
the ITG, however.
2. (SBU) Scheide hoped that an EU Troika mission to Iraq
would be possible in the near future. Regarding the makeup
of the ITG, Scheide said that representation in the new
government should be as broad-based as possible, and that
participation in decision-making should be a transparent,
inclusive process. He emphatically agreed that criticism of
the "ethnic composition" of the new government was off-base,
adding that finding a way to bring Sunnis into the political
process would be an essential element for a successful
stabilization strategy.
Brown