Thursday, October 01, 2009

U.S. and Iranian Diplomats Talk in Geneva

U.S. diplomats are talking one on one with Iran and group talks are being held. High-level officials from Britain, France, Russia and Germany are taking part. China sent a low-level official:
It is the first known direct high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran in years of attempts to persuade Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says the program is peaceful, but some western nations fear it could eventually produce nuclear weapons.

Some hope
The EU's Javier Solana, who is formally heading the one-day negotiations with Jalili, was upbeat before the start of the talks in an 18th century villa in Geneva.

The fact that the meeting is taking place at all offers some hope, reflecting both sides' desire to talk, despite a spike in tensions over last week's revelations by Iran that it had been secretly building a new uranium enrichment plant. MSNBC

Now that Obama is willing to hold diplomatic talks with Iran, the U.S. has world support, said Bob Shrum. Then John Feehry, a republican strategist, wonders aloud if Iran is playing us. Leave it to the republican.
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