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American negotiators hoping for positive discussions with Iran

Heading Into Talks With Iran, U.S. Sees Hopeful Signs NYT, By MARK LANDLER   May 18, 2012 WASHINGTON — American negotiators, heading into a crucial round of talks with Iran  over its nuclear program  next week in Baghdad, are allowing themselves a rare emotion after more than a decade of fruitless haggling with Tehran: hope. With signs that Iran is under more pressure than it has been in years to make a deal, senior Obama administration officials said the United States and five other major powers were prepared to offer a package of inducements to obtain a verifiable agreement to suspend its efforts to enrich uranium closer to weapons grade.

These gestures, the officials said, could include easing restrictions on things like airplane parts and technical assistance to Iran’s energy industry, but not the sweeping sanctions on oil exports, which officials said would go into effect on schedule in July…..

The major powers’ initial goal is to halt the activity that most alarms Israel: the spinning of thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity, which is within striking distance of the level needed to fuel a nuclear weapon. That would buy time for negotiations over the ultimate fate of a program that Iran claims is for peaceful energy purposes, but which the United States and Israel fear is in pursuit of at least a nuclear weapons  capability…… http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/world/middleeast/officials-see-promising-signs-for-iran-nuclear-talks.html

May 19, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general