US edges closer to high-level talks with Iran

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

NEW YORK (AP) — The Obama administration edged close to direct, high-level talks with Iran's new government on Monday, with Secretary of State John Kerry slated to meet his Iranian counterpart this week and the White House weighing the risks and rewards of an encounter between President Barack Obama and Iran's president, Hasan Rouhani.

An Obama-Rouhani exchange on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly would mark the first meeting at that high level for the two nations in more than 30 years. Such talks could signal a turning point in U.S.-Iranian relations — but also could be seen as a premature endorsement for a new Iranian government that has yet to answer key questions about the future of its disputed nuclear program.

The election of Rouhani, a moderate cleric, has led to speculation about possible progress on Iran's nuclear impasse with the U.S. Particularly intriguing to American officials are Rouhani's assertions that his government has "complete authority" in nuclear negotiations. That would be a marked change from previous governments and their relationship with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

American officials say Rouhani's change in tone is driven by the Iranian public's frustration with crippling economic sanctions levied by the U.S. But it is still unclear whether Iran is willing to take the steps the U.S. is seeking in order to ease the sanctions, including curbing uranium enrichment and shutting down the underground Fordo nuclear facility.

State Department officials said Kerry would seek to answer that question on Thursday when new Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif joins nuclear talks between the U.S. and five other world powers. Zarif's participation, which was announced Monday, sets up the first meeting in six years between an American secretary of state and an Iranian foreign minister, though it's unclear whether the two men will break off from the group and hold separate one-on-one talks.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told reporters after meeting with Zarif that she saw "energy and determination" for talks to move ahead with the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

The prospect of bilateral talks between Kerry and Zarif did little to tamp down speculation about a meeting between the U.S. and Iranian presidents, who both arrived in New York on Monday. The most obvious opportunity for a direct exchange appears to be at a U.N. leaders' lunch both are scheduled to attend on Tuesday.

But a lunch meeting would put Obama in the risky position of engaging Rouhani before knowing what the Iranian leader will say during his highly anticipated address to the U.N. General Assembly. Rouhani is scheduled to speak late Tuesday afternoon, while the U.S. president will address the U.N. in the morning.

No American president has met with an Iranian leader since the 1979 Islamic revolution that led to the ouster of the pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. However, U.S. secretaries of state and Iranian foreign ministers have had occasional encounters. The most recent was in 2007, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged pleasantries with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during a meeting in Egypt.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20130923/US--United.States-Iran/

[GandD 5,966]

I wish Putin was our Pres. He'd do this ####### right.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Woo! Peace with words!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

The Lobby is not pleased.

[MyLittlePony 340]

I do better job than both.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I wish Putin was our Pres. He'd do this ####### right.

Yeah, that's why Russia is such a friggin' paradise.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

The Lobby is not pleased.

I say too bad to the Lobby. I believe Iran is run by a group of nutters but I am also sure that the general population is of more modern and worldly persuasion.

[Pooky 3,786]

The Lobby is not pleased.

But the door to the Basement is ecstatic.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I say too bad to the Lobby. I believe Iran is run by a group of nutters but I am also sure that the general population is of more modern and worldly persuasion.

You got that right

Ahmadinejad is straight up start WW3 Muslim Brotherhood, Iman Mahdi bat shat crazy

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I say too bad to the Lobby. I believe Iran is run by a group of nutters but I am also sure that the general population is of more modern and worldly persuasion.

Iran hasn't attacked another country in several centuries, doesn't systematically attempt to forcibly enlarge its territory at the expense of its neighbors, and doesn't have nukes.

Too bad we can't say the same for the nutters who run Israel.