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Saturday, October 20, 2012

White House: Plans for Direct Talks with Iran Not Finalized

The White House today denied a New York Times report that the United States and Iran have reached final agreement to begin one-on-one negotiations to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. The White House said it was committed to working with major powers, the so-called P5+1, to resolve the standoff. The White House said, however, that the U.S. is open to bilateral negotiations. (Reuters, 20 October)

“It's not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any meeting after the American elections,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “We continue to work with the P5+1 on a diplomatic solution and have said from the outset that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally.”

The Times, quoting unnamed Obama administration officials, had said earlier today the two sides had agreed to bilateral talks after secret exchanges between U.S. and Iranian officials.

8 comments:

  1. One-on-one talks, like the old song goes from the film "The Man of La Mancha": "to dream the impossible dream".

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  2. Means nothing. The US has had direct talks with North Korea for a decade.

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  3. Anon 6:13---- might mean nothing, might mean something....all depends as to whether both parties want a deal and want one badly enough to accept a deal that is less than optimal for both.

    I'm not sure that Iran is likely to prove much more flexible than North Korea and also unsure whether the US is gonna bend much unless a very naive and inexperienced Romney admin takes office.

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  4. Anons 6:13AM and 11:52AM

    It would be appropriate to add that the US despite agreement with the NK did not lift sanctions nor fulfiled other agreements like was agreed.
    Therefore Iran suspisions are justified...

    dissident

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  5. Dyssie, please post agreement to which the NorKs lived up to their obligations and which the US agreed to lift sanctions and then, despite NorK compliance, did not.

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  6. The DPRK had waited for over 8 years to be patient with the us' cat and mouse games. The DPRK even demolished some facilities...
    More info available on the Internet...

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  7. A 11:30 --- posting loose talk about the NorKs being patient is no substitute for facts and contract language... any treaty that the US signed with them was for the end of inspections to guarantee no nuclear weapons in North Korea.

    the NorKs very patiently failed to allow full inspections and very patiently continued to develop the weapons.

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  8. A 11:41PM

    Read a various sources and then make conclussions.

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