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Iran Hopeful Geneva Talks Can Lead To 'Road Map'

October 14, 2013
by RFE/RL

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he hopes Tehran and world powers can agree this week on a 'road map' toward resolving the crisis over Iran's disputed nuclear program.

In a Facebook message on October 13, Zarif warned that the process would be complex and might require a 'ministerial meeting.'

The negotiations over Iran's nuclear program are due to start in Geneva on October 15, the first such talks since President Hassan Rohani took office in August. He has pledged to resolve the nuclear dispute in six to 12 months.

The Geneva talks will be between Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton, along with representatives of the P5+1 group made up of the United States, Britain, China, France, and Russia, plus Germany.

Tehran wants an easing of Western economic sanctions and says it is ready for 'serious' negotiations. But it remains unclear whether that might include curtailing uranium enrichment.

Western powers are concerned Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its program is peaceful.

Expectations of progress in Geneva have risen as Iran sends a new negotiating team after talks broke down six months ago in Almaty.

The new team is headed by Foreign Minister Zarif, who will open the meeting and turn negotiations over to his deputy. Zarif would be the only foreign minister at the talks. His presence may reflect the importance Tehran gives the negotiations.

Shannon Kile, a nuclear expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, says Geneva may be the best opportunity in years for progress.

'Hassan Rohani has the nuclear negotiation background. He also has the mandate from the Iranian electorate going into this. So he has some assets that President [Mahmud] Ahmadinejad never had coming into these negotiations. Javad Zarif is well-known among Western interlocutors because of his former position [as Iran's ambassador to] the United Nations. Those all auger well, and they auger for a new approach.'

Room For Compromise?

But Kile says it remains uncertain how much room the new Iranian team has for maneuver. 'It is important to keep in mind they are not the ones who ultimately decide in Iran,' he says. 'That is still very much the supreme leader and his allies, the Revolutionary Guards.'

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran is ready to show 'heroic flexibility' in diplomacy. But he has maintained a hard-line position in past negotiations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Araqchi said on October 13 that Iran will make an offer allowing no pretext for refusal. But he said Tehran would not give up all the enriched uranium it has manufactured.

That reaffirms Tehran's rejection of previous international demands that it stop enriching uranium to the 20 percent level and ship out its stocks except for small amounts for medical use.

The six world powers want Iran to stop 20 percent enrichment because it is a short technical step away from weapons-grade enrichment.

Still, both sides have strong reasons to compromise. Rohani wants to deliver on campaign promises to free his country of sanctions he blames on mishandled Iranian negotiations in the past. The six world powers want to end the crisis peacefully before Iranian enrichment reaches a point where its opponents feel military action is necessary.

Israel says it will not allow Iran to have more than 250 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium -- enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb.

The most recent report by the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says Iran has 185 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium and is maintaining this level by converting excess material into fuel rods.

Washington has signaled that many more meetings probably lie ahead. U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who leads Washington's team in Geneva, told a Senate panel on October 3 that fundamental sanctions already in place should not be lifted soon unless all concerns are addressed by Tehran.

With additional reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-talks -road-map/25136185.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.