For the first time since the hostage crisis in 1979, a high-ranking US diplomat will meet in person with Iranian officials to discuss broad areas of US concern. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, the number three official within the US State Department, will join representatives from the other P5+1 countries for a meeting this Saturday in Geneva with Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. The topic of the discussions will be Iran’s latest response to the package of incentives the international community has offered to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. This marks the first time the United States has engaged with an Iranian diplomat over a range of issues, and marks a nearly complete turnaround for US policy which, until today has required Iran to suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for US participation in talks.
For breaking coverage of this story, see these stories from the New York Times, the Washington Post, AP, the Washington Times, and Reuters. UPDATE: NIAC welcomes US participation in Iran nuclear talks
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Breaking News: US Diplomat to Meet with Iran…
… until today has required Iran to suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for US participation in talks. For breaking coverage of this story, see these stories from the New York Times, the Washington Post, AP, and Reuters….
Sounds encouraging. It is possible that despite all the misgivings and misinformation given about Iran by the Pentagon and VP’s office during Bush’s both terms, something can be salvaged at the end. If this Administration can finally see through the rhetoric and struck an accord, then the credit should be given to them.
Congratulations to NIAC! Your hard work is paying off. Great work!
Wow, I seriously have been waiting my whole life for this little sliver of progress! Thank goodness!
[…] sent by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the recent decision to send a US envoy to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear […]
Anonymous – it does seem somewhat anticlimactic after all those years of sabre-rattling rhetoric no?? but this is one occasion where I would never want to see ‘climactic’.
Mehdi – There is no doubt in my mind that the voice of Iranian Americans, NIAC members in particular, during the past 2.5 years in this discussion has had an enormous impact on the debate. dont take my word for it – go read Waxman’s own words a few posts down – or Wexler (FL) or Frank (MA) or Wu from our conf. (Wu) who have all clearly stated that hearing their constituents is what really made them re-think their positions and move in different directions.
but before I get too far ahead of myself and celebrate prematurely – I’m back to work to do a workshop in NJ to get IA’s in NJ involved.
Babak I think it is the gasoline prices! They have no other choice. To me if it was up to Bush-Cheney they would not have done anything, like they did in Katrina. The whole world, especially Europe is suffering from high gasoline prices, up to $12/gal I hear over there.
So it is natural to ask the Bush administration to do something! Climactic or anticlimactic. Had US not gone into Iraq, things may have been different. But they have screwed up so bad on all fronts that they must do something now.
Well you are right certainly on may of those points… whatever their reasons this certainly has the potential to be good news.
On the other hand – I a bit worried about this 2-week deadline as another attempt to create a case of ‘we tried diplomacy even and it didn’t work”…
did you all see Michael Rubin’s Op-Ed in the NY Times?
Do you have a link to the NY Times article? It is disappointing to see the 2 weeks deadline. Although that has been US’s position all along, to hurry up.
In fact it is funny that US and Iran are like a married couple fighting each other all the time coming from 2 very different backgrounds. US is always hurry up, life in the fast lane, Iran is okay slowly let me go on manbar (preach) first, give you some gift baskets second and then after an afternoon siesta, we may give you a response if you are patient and polite!
Iran’s going on manbar is not helping. It shouldn’t be this difficult. I hope if Obama is elected he won’t meet with Ahmadinejad since he is not the Commander in Chief in Iran. He has said he’d meet with the appropriate people and in his case his counterpart would be Khamenei.
[…] is a virtue This past Saturday, Ambassador William Burns traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to meet with one of Ira…. This meeting was the first since 1979 between a top US diplomat and an Iranian representative. So […]