“U.S. Signals” Sent to Iran

“For two months now, the Americans have been sending rather positive signals to Iranian leaders, who have been reviewing them carefully,” confided a businessman close to certain circles of power in Tehran, on Monday at the recommencement of nuclear power negotiations in Geneva.

This weekend in Bahrain, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that eventually, these talks may even involve the right for Tehran to enrich uranium. The Iranians can enrich uranium at some future date once they have demonstrated that they can do so in a responsible manner in accordance with international obligations, “but they haven’t yet restored the confidence of the international community,” Clinton told the BBC outside the Manama Dialogue. In response, Manouchehr Mottaki, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, states cautiously that Iran considers these remarks as a real “step forward,” but reinforces the fact that these words must be translated into action.

For the Tehran-based businessman, the Geneva talks do not have to lead to tangible progress immediately. According to him, the fact that Saeed Jalili is the current head of the Iranian delegation is a sign that progress will be slow and stagnant. However, if Ali Akbar Salehi, the leader of the Iranian nuclear organization, had participated in these discussions, the outcome would have been otherwise, as Salehi is open to an agreement with the West.

On one side of the negotiation table are the representatives of the six countries (the U.S., the U.K., France, China, Russia and Germany). On the other side is the Iranian delegation, composed of Jalili’s deputy principal, Ali Bagheri, and Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Europe, Ali Ahani, who is familiar with France, as he was the ambassador for the Islamic Republic from 2006 to 2008. After 14 months of deferral, Iranians and Westerners resumed Monday’s talks aimed at finding a solution to their dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions — peacefully for Iran, militarily for the West.