After the first plenary session of nuclear talks between Iran and P+1 in
Almaty today, Ali Baqeri, the deputy head of the Iranian delegation, told
reporters that Iran has put forward a new “comprehensive proposal” that it
hoped would “establish a new bedrock for cooperation.”
The New York Times reported that the Iranian statement was “a bewildering surprise” to other negotiators, who said they had not received any concrete new proposal during the meeting this morning.
The New York Times reported that the Iranian statement was “a bewildering surprise” to other negotiators, who said they had not received any concrete new proposal during the meeting this morning.
“We are somewhat puzzled by the Iranians’ characterization of what they
presented at this morning’s plenary,” a Western official told the New York
Times. “There were some interesting but not fully explained general comments on
our ideas.”
Talks continued in the afternoon.
“What we are hoping is that the Iranian side will come back to us today with a clear and concrete response,” said Michael Mann, the spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and chairwoman of P5+1, during a news conference before the talks started. “The confidence-building measure has to come from Iran,” Mr. Mann said.
“What we are hoping is that the Iranian side will come back to us today with a clear and concrete response,” said Michael Mann, the spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and chairwoman of P5+1, during a news conference before the talks started. “The confidence-building measure has to come from Iran,” Mr. Mann said.
Earlier this week, Russia emphasized the importance of recognizing
Iran’s right to enrich uranium by P5+1 as a step necessary to trike an
agreement.
“We believe a long-term settlement should be based on the recognition of
Iran’s unconditional right to develop its civilian nuclear program, including
the right to enrich uranium provided that all nuclear activity is put under
supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” said Igor Morgulov,
deputy Russian foreign minister. (Interfax/NYT)
But a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said expectations were
modest for the Almaty talks. “Regrettably, the two sides have not yet started
to move toward formulating compromise-based agreements,” the spokesman,
Aleksandr Lukasevich, said in Moscow on Thursday.
File photo: Almaty Talks I, February 2013 (Press TV)
File photo: Almaty Talks I, February 2013 (Press TV)
The NYT isn't a reliable source for Iran reporting. Just last week in reporting the latest inflation figures for Iran, they relied on "experts" to interpret the data, stating it did not include imports. This is wrong, according to the professor of economics at Virginia Tech University.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, it appears the latest nuclear talks merely continue the diktat approach of the U.S. led position, which is disappointing.
I was worried that Iran might give in to the pressure but seems Iran will defend its national right and will not concede
ReplyDeleteJalili is another Idiot like Ahmadinejad; Khamenei believes that he serves Islam best when he put the most incompetent Idiot he can find into the key positions of Iran; he sees the destruction of Iran as his islamic duty after all; Jalili doctoral thesis is about prophet Mohamads 'foreign policy' - so that tells you everything you need to know about the values he is committed to ; that is how Khamenei exploits the american hostility to Iran for his own purposes ...
ReplyDeleteBy holding steady and doing nothing overtly provocative, Tehran is expected to be able to offer relatively small concession if it so chooses and maintain its own long-term priorities as any manifestation of open conflict will raise oil prices to $150-200 USD and crush EU fragile economic recovery...as well as U.S. Japan etc, Tehran knows this-
ReplyDelete-Also consider that N Korea (a friend of Tehran) is providing excellent military/political distraction...
akin to threatening Tehran with one hand tied behind your back.
> (some, privately will claim that ALL of this is by design... 2000 market crash, 9-11, Iraq, Greenspan FED policy that followed and encouraging housing bubble/SIV structured investment vehicles, 2008 collapse, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iran.... Euro disintegration, and ... yes there is and will be more. Tehran also knows that U.S. markets are strong from FED QE and safety "risk off" trade emanating from Euro zone- Tehran is under monetary attack only, and this too has an expiration date. "Leading from behind" - nothing is as it appears.