BREAKING NEWS: Deal would freeze Iran nuclear program for 6 months
Related: Why There Will Be No Deal With Iran
I'm so glad I was wrong for once!
"Optimism fades, but talks continue on Iran agreement; Officials trade television barbs, cite major gaps" by Joby Warrick and Anne Gearan | Washington Post, November 22, 2013
GENEVA — Optimism for a nuclear deal with Iran seemed to wane Thursday, as diplomats from the Islamic republic and six major world powers struggled to find common ground....
The diplomats sought to build on momentum from negotiations 10 days ago, when officials said they had come close to a preliminary agreement....
But the negotiators’ earlier confidence appeared to have faded, as diplomats traded barbs in television interviews and warned of significant gaps between the sides. Iran’s second-ranking official present at the talks said his delegation had ‘‘lost our trust’’ in its negotiating partners, because of changes in the terms of the proposed agreement offered by the so-called P5-plus-1 powers (the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia).
‘‘We cannot enter serious talks until the trust is restored,’’ Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters during a pause between sessions. ‘‘That doesn’t mean that we will stop negotiations.’’
France’s chief diplomat, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, also sounded a pessimistic note....
What are we to make of government and mouthpiece media deception, 'eh?
Despite the verbal jousting, a European Union spokesman described Thursday’s meetings as ‘‘substantial and detailed.’’ The talks included a private session between EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Iranian side met briefly with US diplomats Wednesday night.
The tone of the meeting was soured, in part, by public comments Wednesday by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who referred to Western countries as ‘‘evil powers’’ and called Israel the ‘‘rabid dog’’ of the Middle East.
The Obama administration brushed off the remarks and insisted that a proposed deal to curb Iran’s disputed nuclear program is not the trap that Israel fears.
‘‘We have the best chance we’ve had in a decade, we believe, to halt progress and roll back Iran’s program,’’ Secretary of State John Kerry said in Washington. He said the United States would not allow an agreement, should one be reached, to ‘‘buy time’’ for Iran to make progress toward a weapons program or to fall short of ‘‘our core fundamental concerns.’’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has waged a public lobbying effort against the draft deal.
He's even invoking the Holohoax™.
Unable to persuade Washington to delay the latest round of talks, Netanyahu went to Russia on Wednesday seeking stronger limits on Iran.
So what did they talk about?
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"Kerry to rejoin Iran nuclear program talks; Deal taking shape would dilute uranium stocks" Globe Wire Services, November 23, 2013
GENEVA — Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Geneva to give a boost to stalled nuclear talks with Iran, the State Department said on Friday, raising hopes that a historic deal could be reached over the weekend.
After I was just told yesterday.... sigh.
I guess I'll forgive the greenhouse gas contribution on this one.
Kerry decided to join the negotiations after diplomats reported progress in narrowing differences with Iran over a proposal that would scale back key parts of its nuclear program, Western officials said. His visit would be the second time in as many weeks that Kerry has used personal diplomacy to try to conclude a deal....
That announcement came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Geneva to join the negotiations, which have been underway since Wednesday. Diplomats from Iran and six major powers had reportedly made faltering progress in their attempts to resolve a number of sticking points, including Iran’s insistence on international recognition of its ‘‘right’’ to enrich uranium....
Related:
"State Department officials cautioned that Kerry’s decision to attend the talks did not necessarily portend an imminent agreement. “He is the last person who is going to accept a bad deal,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement announcing the visit."
Then it must be a good deal despite the deception.
Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, announced that he would also join the talks Saturday....
The news of Kerry’s impending arrival capped a day in which prospects for a deal appeared to brighten appreciably. Iranian officials, who had given generally gloomy assessments of the talks earlier, were visibly upbeat as the meetings dragged on.
Oh, it was the Iranians that were giving gloomy updates?
That's certainly not the way I remember it being reported in my jewsmedia, even in the previous day's piece.
Is it really any wonder I'm sick of reading this shit?
Iranian media reported that progress had been made on one of the main points of contention: Iran’s insistence that global powers acknowledge its ‘‘right’’ to make enriched uranium. Western diplomats declined to comment on the report.
‘‘If you’re asking about the amount of work that has been done, we have moved forward up to 90 percent,’’ Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian journalists during a break in the talks, according to Iran’s semiofficial Press TV news service. Zarif said only ‘‘one or two issues’’ remained to be resolved....
They have developed bomb-grade uranium?
US diplomats have described efforts to find language that would satisfy Iran without implying legal recognition of a right to enrichment.
Even though it is their legal right. Hell, we are supposed to be helping them!
Related:
"Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, member states are allowed to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, though the treaty is silent on whether that right includes uranium enrichment. More than a dozen countries enrich uranium for nuclear power, including non-nuclear weapons states such as Brazil, Japan and the Netherlands."
The Geneva meeting is the third round of international talks on Iran’s nuclear program since moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani assumed the presidency in August. The sides fell just short of reaching an agreement two weeks ago, when Kerry and his counterparts from Europe and Russia flew to Geneva at the eleventh hour to try to close the deal.
That's where the verbatim print article ended.
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