Cablegate: Embassy Madrid

VZCZCXRO0587
RR RUEHLA
DE RUEHMD #0979 2551214
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 111214Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5317
INFO RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA 3571

S E C R E T MADRID 000979

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR ISN/MTR: JOHN PAUL HERRMANN AND FOR ISN/MTR, EUR/WE, EUR/PRA,

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2033 TAGS: MTCRE PARM PREL ETTC MNUC TSPA SP IR

REF: A. SECSTATE 81940 B. 07 MADRID 130 C. 05 MADRID 3754 D. 05 STATE 191240

Classified By: DCM Arnold A. Chacon for reasons 1.4 (b), (c) and (d)

1. (S) PolOff met MFA and Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Commerce (MITC) officials to deliver points and give a copy of REFTEL As non-paper alerting the GOS of an Iranian companys attempts to procure a computer numerically controlled milling machine from the Spanish firm Maquinaria CME, S.A.

2. (S) At the MITC on September 10, PolOff met Manuel Sanchez Melero, Assistant Deputy DG for the Control of Foreign Commerce in Defense and Dual-Use Material, and Conrado Igea Calleja, Chief of Export Controls on Dual-Use Material, who was introduced as the GOS expert on Spanish dual-use exports to Iran. Upon reading the non-paper, Igea acknowledged that a five-axis milling machine would indeed fall under the parameters of the Wassenaar Agreement. Both gentlemen concurred that Maquinaria would need an export license for such a transaction with an Iranian company and that these licenses are approved on a transaction-by-transaction basis in situations such as this that included sensitive technology and concerns about the past history and affiliation of the purchasing company. Without the export license, Maquinaria would not be able to legally sell its product abroad.

3. (S) PolOff mentioned that the same non-paper had been shared with MFA officials a week earlier, which pleased the MITC officials. (On September 3, Poloff met Gonzalo de Salazar, the new Deputy DG for Non-Proliferation & Disarmament, and Carlos Torres Vidal, Counselor for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. As Salazar is new, he was not familiar with the history of previous US-Spanish cooperation on this case. Vidal also did not appear familiar with it. However, they commented that, in accordance with Spanish laws, any effort by Maquinaria to sell the milling machine to the Iranian company would be denied.)

4. (C) Sanchez Melero, aware that PolOff had only recently arrived in-country, explained the next steps that the GOS would take at its scheduled inter-ministerial council on sensitive items. The MFA, MITC, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Spanish Customs, the Spanish National Police, the Guardia Civil, and the National Intelligence Center (CNI) all attend this council. A working group meets every month and then items are forwarded to a higher level approximately 7-10 days later.

5. (S) Upon exiting the meeting, Sanchez Melero introduced PolOff to Ramon Muro, the Deputy DG for the Control of Foreign Commerce in Defense and Dual-Use Material. Sanchez Malero and Igea assured PolOff they would inform Muro of the items discussed in our meeting. COMMENT: Of the three officials at the MITC, Muro is the most senior and appears to be the institutional memory on the topic, as he had received the 2005 demarche (REFTEL C) on Maquinarias previous questionable business interests with Iranian companies, as reported in REFTEL D.
Aguirre

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