The New York Times dropped a big leak over the weekend, guaranteed to finds its way into the presidential debate tomorrow night on foreign policy. And if true, the report signifies more daylight between the Obama Administration and Israel than hardliners are comfortable with.
According to anonymous Obama administration officials, the US and Iran have agreed to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program after the elections. Iranian officials have insisted on that because they want to know “with whom they would be negotiating.”
White House spokesperson Tommy Vietor denied the US had made a “final” agreement with Iran over the meetings but said the administration was open to them and stated “from the outset that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally.”
The administration, officials said, has begun an internal review at the State Department, the White House and the Pentagon to determine what the United States’ negotiating stance should be, and what it would put in any offer. One option under consideration is “more for more” — more restrictions on Iran’s enrichment activities in return for more easing of sanctions.
This is great news. Iran’s beef all along has been the refusal of the U.S. to offer any easing of sanctions for Iran’s acceptance of enrichment limitations. As I reported back in June in All eyes on Moscow:
In Baghdad, Iran expressed the hope that its proposals would be met with the principle of reciprocity: if they agreed to limit enrichment, the sanctions would be eased. Talib Mahdi, a member of the Iranian delegation in Baghdad stated Iran would accept a proposal limiting enrichment to 5% if the sanctions were eased. But Iran’s bottom line is recognition of a right to enrichment, and they are not even interested in discussing further rounds of negotiations without this recognition.
Michael Oren sounds displeased:
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren, said the administration had not informed Israel, and that the Israeli government feared Iran would use new talks to “advance their nuclear weapons program.”
“We do not think Iran should be rewarded with direct talks,” Mr. Oren said, “rather that sanctions and all other possible pressures on Iran must be increased.”
Israel doesn’t want the U.S. in direct negotiations with Iran, that’s as clear as daylight on a crisp autumn day.
It’s hard to keep track of which side of its mouth the US is talking from.
Consider this nonsense:
U.S. Administration Claims Iran Allied With al lQaeda
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/10/us-administration-claims-iraqn-allied-with-alqaeda.html#comments
poor michael oren is out of the loop now that bina has been reassigned to siberia.
Tony Karon tweet: “A closer read suggests purpose of this leak is to embarrass Obama pre debate, push him to commit to harder line re Iran talks.”
the Times story was denied by the admin, saying that there was no agreement in place, and strongly denied by the iranians.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference in Tehran on Sunday that Iran has no one-on-one negotiations or discussions with the U.S.
“We don’t have any discussions or negotiations with America,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday told a news conference in Tehran. “The (nuclear) talks are ongoing with the P5+1 group of nations. Other than that, we have no discussions with the United States.” (IRNA/Reuters, 21 October)———–
http://www.uskowioniran.com/2012/10/we-have-no-discussions-with-us-iran-fm.html
The NYT story sounds to me like a trial balloon – announcing something the administration is considering but wants wants to see the reaction to before committing to anything. Hopefully there’ll be enough positive reaction to embolden the White House to move forward with a solution to this to calm that part of the world down and remove some of the fuel that feeds the ‘clash of civilisation’ fearmongers.