US Diplomat to Join Iran Nuclear Talks
puremagic
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US Diplomat to Join Iran Nuclear Talks
By MATTHEW LEE,
AP
Posted: 2008-07-16 13:52:01
WASHINGTON (July 16) - A top U.S. diplomat heading to Geneva has no plans to meet separately with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, but the mere presence of the Bush administration official at talks between the Iranian negotiator and representatives of other world powers will be a sharp break with past administration policy.
William Burns, America's third highest-ranking diplomat, will attend talks with the Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, in Switzerland on Saturday. The talks are aimed at persuading Iran to halt activities that could lead to the development of atomic weapons. It will be the first time such a high-ranking U.S. official has attended such talks.
Official contacts between Iran and the United States are extremely rare and although Washington is part of a six-nation effort to get Iran to stop enriching and reprocessing uranium, the administration has shunned contacts with Tehran on the matter.
White House press secretary Dana Perino referred to the weekend meeting as a "one-time U.S. participation."
"We will be there to listen. We are not there to negotiate. And our long-standing principle, that Iran must halt its uranium enrichment before negotiations can take place, remains the same. It's also been referred to as freeze-to-freeze — if they were to freeze their enrichment, then we would not move forward with the consequences of not accepting the (incentives) package, which are more sanctions," she said.
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Wasn't Obama blasted for even suggesting we talk with the Iranians? Oh well.
By MATTHEW LEE,
AP
Posted: 2008-07-16 13:52:01
WASHINGTON (July 16) - A top U.S. diplomat heading to Geneva has no plans to meet separately with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, but the mere presence of the Bush administration official at talks between the Iranian negotiator and representatives of other world powers will be a sharp break with past administration policy.
William Burns, America's third highest-ranking diplomat, will attend talks with the Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, in Switzerland on Saturday. The talks are aimed at persuading Iran to halt activities that could lead to the development of atomic weapons. It will be the first time such a high-ranking U.S. official has attended such talks.
Official contacts between Iran and the United States are extremely rare and although Washington is part of a six-nation effort to get Iran to stop enriching and reprocessing uranium, the administration has shunned contacts with Tehran on the matter.
White House press secretary Dana Perino referred to the weekend meeting as a "one-time U.S. participation."
"We will be there to listen. We are not there to negotiate. And our long-standing principle, that Iran must halt its uranium enrichment before negotiations can take place, remains the same. It's also been referred to as freeze-to-freeze — if they were to freeze their enrichment, then we would not move forward with the consequences of not accepting the (incentives) package, which are more sanctions," she said.
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Wasn't Obama blasted for even suggesting we talk with the Iranians? Oh well.
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
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