Iran nuclear talks: No news may be good news on Day 1
The details of proposals from Iran and world powers on a nuclear agreement will remain a secret until a deal is struck 鈥� or talks collapse.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton gestures next to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during a photo op prior to the start of two days of closed-door nuclear talks Tuesday, October 15, at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland. Iran and six world powers meet for the first talks today on Tehran's nuclear program since the election of a reformist Iranian president.
Fabrice Coffrini/AP
Geneva
Iran and six world powers capped a day of apparent progress at nuclear talks in Geneva with a rare, hour-long bilateral meeting between senior American and Iranian negotiators.聽
US Deputy Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at the end of a day of diplomacy, during which Iran laid out a new road map to limit its nuclear program in exchange for easing crippling sanctions.
The meeting tonight 鈥� and the fact that neither the Americans, Europeans or Iranians gave off-the-record briefings but only issued short statements, at most 鈥撀爄ndicates that progress and possibly compromise is under discussion.
鈥淭he discussion was useful, and we look forward to continuing our discussions in tomorrow鈥檚 meetings,鈥� said a senior US State Department official about the third high-level US contact in a single month. The first direct contact between US and Iranian presidents in a generation happened via a phone call at the end of September.
The meeting 鈥渄emonstrates our continued commitment to bilateral engagement,鈥� said the US official, in the context of nuclear talks with six world powers.
Iran has invigorated its diplomatic outreach since the June election of President Hassan Rouhani, a centrist cleric who says he wants to resolve Iran鈥檚 decade-long nuclear controversy with the West in three to six months.
The new Iranian proposal 鈥� presented via PowerPoint this morning in the first session of two-day talks by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif 鈥� was followed up by expert-level technical discussions in the afternoon.聽
鈥淔or the first time, very detailed technical聽discussions took place,鈥� said Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the talks for the P5+1 group (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany).
That exact choice of words was echoed by a senior US official,聽who said in a statement: "For the first time, we had very detailed technical discussions."
Mr. Mann said the Iranian proposal was 鈥渧ery useful," but there鈥檚 still a lot of work that needs to be done. He said Iran had spelled out 鈥渨hat they envision鈥� as the endgame, and that negotiators would 鈥済et into the nitty-gritty鈥� tomorrow.
Iran called its presentation 鈥淐losing unnecessary crisis, and opening new horizons,鈥� 聽an allusion to its effort to harness the political changes currently underway in Tehran, where the rise of a centrist president is being used to recalibrate an unsuccessful foreign policy under arch-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Araghchi said earlier in the day that the details of Iran鈥檚 proposal would remain secret until a deal was struck.
鈥淥ur objective is to guarantee our country鈥檚 right to peaceful use of nuclear activities, including [uranium] enrichment, and to ensure that the nature of these activities is peaceful,鈥� said Araghchi in Persian.
Both Iran and the P5+1 see this round of talks in Geneva as an opportunity to move forward after 18 months of an often-frustrating negotiating process.
Iran has long signaled that it was willing to halt its most sensitive nuclear work 鈥撀爀nrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity, which is a few technical steps from bomb-grade 鈥撀燼nd agree to more intrusive inspections measures. But the sanctions relief offered in exchange was never enough for Tehran.聽
The P5+1 likewise never clarified for Iran that future enrichment would be permitted inside Iran, even for the peaceful purpose of power production and medical isotopes that Iran declares to be its aim.
The US-Iran bilateral meeting today between Ms. Sherman and Araghchi is the latest high-level contact between the two arch enemies in the past month. Mr. Zarif met for 30 minutes with US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in late September.
Just two days later, President Barack Obama shared a historic 15-minute phone call with Mr. Rouhani as the Iranian president headed to the airport to depart New York. It was the highest-level contact between the two countries since Iran鈥檚 1979 Islamic revolution ushered in decades of mutual hostility.
The Iranian and American camps are both facing criticism back home from conservatives who object to any nuclear deal or any contact with the other side.聽聽