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Iran's chief nuclear negotiator (L) attends a meeting on nuclear power on Iran in Geneva - Source: Reuters -
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The United States said it held the highest level direct talks
with Iran in three decades to try to put to rest Western suspicions
Tehran is planning a nuclear bomb.
The significant bilateral conversation took place during talks
between Iran and six world powers near Geneva, an official at the
talks said. Iran declined to confirm the two-way meeting.
The negotiations outside Geneva, also attended by Britain, France,
Germany, Russia and China, took place against a backdrop of renewed
international concern prompted by Iran's revelation it has a second
uranium enrichment facility.
Washington had said it would not threaten further sanctions against
Tehran at the one-day meeting but had prepared them in case the
discussions made no progress.
"This can't be a phoney process," a senior US official said in
Washington.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is designed purely for generating
electricity and had ruled out discussing it, saying the talks
should focus on issues like Afghanistan instead.
But a Western diplomat close to the meeting said Iran's nuclear
negotiator had touched on it in his opening statement.
A Western diplomat said the issue of the second enrichment
facility at Qom had been raised.
The West wants Iran to allow immediate UN inspections at the
plant, which Tehran revealed last week, and give access to
documents and employees.
The diplomat said it was not yet clear if the Iranians would
compromise on the wider issue of suspending uranium enrichment, as
demanded by five UN Security Council resolutions.
Iranian state television said later the two sides would meet again
this month. There was no immediate confirmation.
The engagement track
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
warned the West against using what he called the logic of force in
comments.
An Iranian official who declined to be named said Iran wanted the
talks to succeed. "We want logic to dominate the atmosphere of the
talks," the official said.
In Washington, senior Obama administration officials said the
United States would not threaten Iran with fresh sanctions.
But one official said the United States has been preparing a range
of areas in which to pursue sanctions if Tehran ignores Western
entreaties about its nuclear programme.
These could be applied through the UN Security Council or by
individual states.
Experts believe they may be targeted at the energy sector.
"You're in a much better position to prepare the ground on the
pressure track if you have demonstrated unmistakably that you're
doing everything you can on the engagement side," one official
said.
The meeting at the elegant villa made available by the Swiss for
decades to bring foes together was the first time a US official was
a full participant in such talks.
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, head
of the US delegation, also met Iran's chief nuclear negotiator
Saeed Jalili separately, US officials said.
"There was a meeting with the Iranians," said Robert Wood, a
spokesman for the US State Department.
They were the highest level US-Iran talks in nearly 30 years.
At a similar meeting in Geneva in 2008 Burns left the room to
avoid having to shake hands with Jalili, according to diplomats at
those talks.
Washington severed relations with Tehran in 1980 during a hostage
crisis in the wake of Iran's Islamic Revolution.
The administration of former President George Bush reluctantly
began to take part in multilateral talks with Iran towards the end
of his presidency.
President Barack Obama, Bush's successor, has said he wants to
improve US-Iranian ties but Tehran has reacted coolly to his
overtures.
West eyes Russian, Chinese reaction
Professor Mohammad Marandi, head of North American studies at
Tehran University, said the Iranians expected the six powers to
accept it had a right to a nuclear programme.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in New York last week
his delegation would ask at the Geneva meeting that Iran be allowed
to buy enriched uranium for medical purposes from the United States
or any other country prepared to sell it.
A US official said Washington would make clear that it was not
prepared to sell Iran any uranium.
The Western powers also want to gauge Russian and Chinese reaction
to last week's announcement that Tehran had been concealing the
uranium enrichment plant at Qom.
Western diplomats said Moscow and Beijing seemed to share their
concern.
"The Russians and Chinese don't want a nuclear-armed Iran," a
Western diplomat said. "They've made that clear."
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in London he
hoped Iran realised it had to abandon its nuclear plans.
"Recent events including the fact that Iran had not declared the
existence of a nuclear site testifies to the importance of this
issue and stresses the need for an increased international,
political and diplomatic pressure on Iran," he told
reporters.
The senior US official said Thursday's talks could not be an
open-ended process or talks just for the sake of talks, but that
the issue was likely to need more than one meeting.
Iran's English-language Press TV said later: "Iran and the 5+1
(powers) agree to hold talks again before the end of October."
It did not give a source. Obama has said he wants progress before the end of the year.
