Iran and six world powers put nuclear talks back on track at a landmark session that included the highest-level bilateral contact with the US in years and a pledge to meet again this month.
US President Barack Obama then challenged Tehran to make good on its promises quickly.
Iran also agreed on Thursday to allow UN inspectors into its covertly built enrichment plant during the talks, held at a villa outside Geneva. The discussions appeared to defuse tensions that had been building for weeks.
Speaking in Washington, Obama called the talks “a constructive beginning” and said Iran must match its words with action.
Tehran “must grant unfettered access” to international inspectors within two weeks, he said, warning that if Iran fails to follow through, “then the United States will not continue to negotiate indefinitely and we are prepared to move towards increased pressure.”
“Our patience is not unlimited,” Obama said. “Going forward, we expect to see swift action.”
The tone of Thursday’s meeting was considerably more positive than just a week ago, when the US and its allies were threatening Iran with tough new sanctions if it refused to freeze its nuclear activities, which they suspect are aimed at creating an atomic weapon.
Perhaps the most significant development of the day was a 45 minute one-on-one meeting between US Under Secretary of State William Burns and Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, Saaed Jalili. It was the first direct US negotiations with Iran since Washington severed relations in 1980.
The encounter appeared to add to the positive atmosphere that led to agreement by all the parties — Iran, the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — for a follow-up meeting this month.
It also appeared to be concrete proof of Obama’s commitment to engage Iran directly on nuclear and other issues — a sharp break from policy under the Bush administration.
Statements made by the two sides, however, reflected the continuing divide between them.
US Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Burns used the meeting “to reiterate the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. He addressed the need for Iran to take concrete and practical steps that ... will build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its program.”
Wood said both sides also “had a frank exchange on other issues, including human rights.”
Officials in Washington said Burns urged Tehran to resolve the cases of three Americans detained in Iran since July.
Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told reporters Iran agreed to “cooperate fully” with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to open its newly disclosed nuclear facility to inspectors, probably within “a couple of weeks.”
In a statement, the IAEA said agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei had been invited to Iran to discuss nuclear issues. A senior US official said ElBaradei would travel to Tehran this weekend. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his information was confidential.
ElBaradei recently said Tehran was “on the wrong side of the law” over its new enrichment plant near the Shiite holy city of Qom. He said Iran should have revealed its plans as soon as it decided to build the facility.
Western officials said Iran also agreed to send some of its enriched uranium to Russia to further process the material for use in a research reactor in Tehran. It was a long-sought compromise because Iran has repeatedly refused to involve an outside country, insisting it has the right to a full domestic enrichment program.
Obama said such a step would help build international confidence.
“We support Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power,” Obama said. “Taking the step of transferring its low-enriched uranium to a third country would be a step toward building confidence that Iran’s program is in fact peaceful.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS