Two-day talks between Iran and the P5+1 ended today in Geneva, with a next round of talks scheduled for November 7-8. Unlike the past meetings without agreement, where both sides agreed to simply punt the talks down the road, these talks appear to have yielded substantial progress.
The European Union was quick to praise Iran’s offer, saying they were an “important contribution,” and even US officials conceded they’d never had such intense, detailed conversations with Iran on the nation’s civilian nuclear program before.
The specifics of Iran’s offer have not been made public yet, but Iran has been reported to have offered significant limitations to the scope of its civilian enrichment program, and to offer additional inspections above and beyond those required by their IAEA safeguards agreement.
That last part seems huge, with reports that they will offer “snap visits” to Iran’s nuclear sites as part of the deal, and even before the November meetings, the P5+1 is planning to have a side-meeting with Iran just to flesh out the details of the inspections.
Iranian officials had expressed hope going into this conference that a final settlement could be reached within six months, and while it is of course too soon to say if that’s going to happen, for the first time in years of negotiations, it seems a possibility.
Did someone mention “civilian nuclear program”? I thought the talks were about Iran is months away from building a nuclear weapon. What is the real story here?
People just don't get it. The negotiators DO NOT MAKE THE FINAL DECISIONS!
Obama does that. And he does what he's told by the people who run him – the people who are "Israel Firsters" and members of the military-industrial complex.
People who think a "real deal" is going to be had are delusional. There was a perfectly good deal made in June 2010 by Iran, Turkey and Brazil. What happened? Obama rejected it – even after he had explicitly told both Turkey and Brazil in a letter that the deal was exactly what he wanted.
He lied. He'll do it again.