talks in Geneva this week and appear to have reached agreement on only one point—to meet again next month in Istanbul.
Iranian officials said Iran’s nuclear program was not a topic of discussion either day, a major point to make for the hardliners back home.
But a French official said the talks were “mainly centered on the nuclear” and another official said about 75 percent of the time was devoted to the nuclear topic.
The Islamic Republic is intent on saying it won’t compromise on any of its nuclear program. Officials have been saying for weeks that they welcome talks but will not discuss Iran’s nuclear program in any way. Such comments are seen as largely a sop for hardliners, who worry that moderates involved in the talks may give away the family jewels.
Many in the United States hear what the Iranian officials have been saying over and over again. They wonder why the Obama Administration is bothering to sit down with the Iranians. This has been a popular criticism from Republicans.
P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, was asked a few weeks ago why the United States would go to the talks if Iran was refusing to discuss the only issue the United States cares about. He brushed aside the Iranian remarks as just meant for home consumption and explained that Iran had said the same thing before prior sessions of the talks but behind closed doors had discussed the nuclear issue at length.
The bottom line, however, is that no one claimed any progress had been made in Geneva or that any concessions had been made by Iran or the Big Six powers—China, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and the United States. Still, that surprised no one who was involved since no progress was expected so soon.
Both Iranian and Western negotiators said that Saeed Jalili, the chief of the Iranian delegation, opened the session Monday morning by mentioning the assassination last week of one Iranian nuclear scientist and the injuring of another in a separate assassination attempt.
Iranian news reports said he condemned the major powers for not condemning the attacks—although the United States had condemned them a week before. European sources said Jalili actually was more diplomatic and described the attacks as burdening the atmosphere of the talks. European sources said Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who is the host for the talks, responded by “thoroughly condemning” the attacks on the two scientists.
That being said, the talks moved on to other topics.
The Monday session broke up at one point for bilateral discussions. Jalili met separately with the Chinese and Russian delegations, as well as with Ashton. Officials said Jalili did not meet separately with William Burns, the chief American representative, who is the undersecretary of state who handles Iran issues.
The delegations lunched together Monday with a menu of duck with olives, char fillet with sage, rice pilaf and assorted desserts.
Outside the meeting, about 100 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq demonstrated in a heavy rain. They called on the Big Six to break off the talks and impose more sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
As for what will be on the agenda at Istanbul in January, Ashton did not give any leeway to Iran’s many claims over many months that Iran would discuss global problems with the Big Six ranging from climate change to international crime. Ashton said simply that in Istanbul, “We plan to discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating towards resolution of our core concerns about the nuclear issue.”