(S) BANK MELLI NON-PAPER CONVEYED TO FCO

SECRET S E C R E T LONDON 002994 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/CPI/NEW AND EUR/WE/PEASE E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2017 TAGS: ETTC, KNNP, PARM, PREL, IR, UK SUBJECT: (S) BANK MELLI NON-PAPER CONVEYED TO FCO REF: A. STATE 104801 B. LONDON 2965 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Maura Connelly for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). (S) In response to ref A non-paper, Will Gelling, deputy in the Iran Section at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), told Polcounselor that the FCO had provided the State Department (NFI) earlier the week of July 30 with a British non-paper on Bank Melli that HMG is willing to share with all the P5 1 members, including Russia and China. Gelling said this UK non-paper was a "watered down" version of a previous UK background paper on Bank Melli that could not be shared with Moscow and Beijing. Although not as detailed as ref A's non-paper, this revised version did contain "useful information," Gelling told Polcounselor. The FCO had earlier received U.S. non-paper from HMG Treasury (ref B), but Gelling offered no substantive comment on it. Visit London's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm JOHNSON