I’m on the fly all day today here, but wanted to pass on a news update (OMG.. it’s MSNBC… LOL) on just how those talks were doing, and perhaps quell the suggestions of some that the US POTUS is somehow caving in on principles out of desperation.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Other than having more envoys (not high level officials) at the table, and more goodies on the incentives platter, it appears Iran is quite determined to “stay the course”, despite any western carrots. Surprise, surprise….
From the NBC/MSNBC news services, “U.S. to Iran: Cooperate or face confrontation: Statement comes after U.S. envoy joins talks on nuclear program”
McCormack said William Burns, the senior U.S. diplomat at the talks, did not meet separately with any member of the Iranian delegation and that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Iran it must give a “clear answer” to an offer made by world powers within two weeks.
Europe and the United States want Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, but Iran made clear Saturday that it has no intention of doing so.
Burns did not speak publicly after today’s session. McCormack said Burns told Iran that the United States and its allies “are serious that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment to have negotiations involving the United States.”
~~~Solana told reporters after the talks with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili that the two would speak either by telephone or personally in two weeks.
“The meeting was constructive, but we didn’t get still the answer we were looking for,” Solana said.
Jalili asked that Western powers not turn away from negotiations. “Iran is calling on the Western powers to resume the dialogue,” he said.
The presence of Burns had led to hopes of compromise on a formula under which Iran would agree to stop expanding its enrichment activities.
In exchange, six powers — the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany — would hold off on passing new U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
But doubt was cast over the value of talks less then an hour after they started, when Keyvan Imani, a member of the Iranian delegation, appeared to indicate that Tehran was not prepared to budge on enrichment.
“Suspension — there is no chance for that,” he told reporters gathered in the courtyard of Geneva’s ornate City Hall, the venue of the negotiations.
RTFA please…
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Wow. The Bush administration is engaging in talks with Iran. What an appeaser that Bush is! A real Neville Chamberlain, eh?
DW 5000, you have no idea why the State Department was at the meeting. You have no idea what Israel is planning, or what the State Department had in mind. The world could turn upside down if this is not resolved. Maybe the US was putting pressure on Iran because they know how serious Israel is. So why the snark? This problem may not be solved with words.
And of course Dim Wit and friends have been leading the appeasement charge with Iran for years demanding just such a meeting. You’d think they would thank the Bush Administration.
This just proves that whatever Bush does the dim wit Dems will oppose it.
I’ll bet if Bush announced he would pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq ASAP the Dems would insist we stay.
This would have actually been a good play at gotcha politics IF the talks had worked:
“Wow. The Bush administration is engaging in talks with Iran. What an appeaser that Bush is! A real Neville Chamberlain, eh?”
BUT-since Iran’s still building nuclear bomb factories…it’s not at all some sort of gotcha or even an example of partisan politics. Nope.
Aside from proof that appeasement and the pipedream of direct “talks” w Iran can somehow get them to abandon their nuclear bomb desires….that “wow” statement is just pure, glorious, irony.
LMAO!
…And, unsurprisingly, Mike H.’s America missed the point of the post because I didn’t label it with the “snark,” “satire” or “irony” tags.
Even a mule will pay attention if you hit it over the head with a two-by-four. Cripes.
BTW… “RTFA” means READ THE FREAKING (PG13 version) ARTICLE!
Obviously someone here decided to furiously type away without doing so. Otherwise the comments about what role the US is playing in these “talks” would not be so far removed from the article’s content.
That’s what happens when you leave the lib/progressives alone with a homework assignment… they don’t do it, and just demand the quizzes or graduating test criteria get altered to fit their preconceived notions instead.