US, Iran talk at last
In historic talks, 6- month target for nuclear plan
TopU. S. and Iranian diplomats meet in earnest for the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, hoping to make progress on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and to rebuild a relationship.
UNITED NATIONS — The top diplomats of the United States and Iran on Thursday held their first substantive meeting since the 1979 Iranian revolution, hoping that within six months they can come to terms on Iran’s disputed nuclear ambitions and find a new foundation for their relationship after decades of antagonism.
Secretary of State John Kerry sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and diplomats from five other world powers on the sidelines of the United Nations’ annual gathering to probe whether a new Iranian government and Washington “can continue to chart away forward,” a senior administration official said before the meeting began.
Kerry said after the meeting that it had been “constructive.” He and Zarif spoke separately during the gathering, Kerry said.
The seven nations agreed to hold the next formal meeting Oct. 15- 16 in Geneva, officials said.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said the diplomats had agreed to “go forward with an ambitious time frame.”
Zarif said he was optimistic about the talks. “We agreed to jump- start the process so we could move forward … toward finalizing it in a year’s time,” he told reporters later in the evening, after a speech at the Asia Society by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani.
“We will move forward, but we will test each other aswe go along,” he added.
Kerry signaled that he would quickly test whether Rouhani’s government was ready for compromise and was not seeking simply to drag out negotiations while Iran’s nuclear program advances.
“I will tell you when they’re serious,” Kerry told reporters earlier in the day. The meeting of the socalled P5+ 1 diplomatic group convened during a week in which President Barack Obama and Rouhani told world leaders that they sought an opening to better relations.
Diplomats have hinted that the discussion between the United States and Iran could vault over the plodding path of theP5+ 1, which has offered Iran limited relief from Western economic penalties in return for a halt to some of Iran’s most threatening nuclear activities. The diplomatic group consists of the five permanent members of the U. N. Security Council plus Germany.
For now, officials say, the primary talks will take place at the group meetings. But contacts between the U. S. and Iranian officials — which recently included an exchange of letters between Rouhani and Obama — will continue and could become the place where the most important communications take place, some analysts believe.
Obama’s and Rouhani’s appearances in New York have underscored how little running room they have to compromise, because of allies at home and abroad who are deeply fearful of a deal.
Rouhani on Wednesday, in an interview with CNN, appeared to depart from Iranian practice by acknowledging the Holocaust. According to a CNN translation, he referred to it as a “crime that the Nazis committed toward the Jews” and called it “reprehensible and condemnable.”
But the comments touched off a storm among conservatives in Iran. A semiofficial news agency denied that Rouhani had made such comments and accused CNN of fabricating the quotes.
Obama, too, has felt the heat from allies who fear he may be taken in by an adversary.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered formal support for the talks, he has also called Rouhani a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
At home, Obama faces warnings from a Congress that is united in anti- Iran zeal. But some Democrats close to the White House say they believe Obama is excited by the opportunity to make headway on the long Iranian standoff. Some expect him to sidestep Congress by using executive powers to ease sanctions.
The U. S. and allies are likely to look for concessions from Iran to reduce the immediate threat from its nuclear program, which some fear may be months from attaining weapons know- how.
While Iran has signaled some willingness to reduce its stockpile of mediumenriched uranium and to offer more “transparency” in its program, Rouhani has not yet embraced a concept that is key to any deal — an acknowledgment that Iran is willing to accept limits on its nuclear program.