U. S. to send envoy to Iran talks
It is departure from policy
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will send a senior envoy to international talks this weekend with Iran about its nuclear program, in what U. S. officials described as a “one-time deal,” designed to demonstrate a serious desire to negotiate a solution to the impasse over Tehran’s ambitions.
In a significant departure from long-standing policy, Undersecretary of State William Burns will join a scheduled meeting in Geneva between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, according to a senior State Department official.
Burns will not negotiate with the Iranians nor hold separate meetings, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced. Instead, Burns will advance the White House’s position that serious negotiations can begin only after Iran suspends its enrichment of uranium.
Administration officials have long insisted that U. S. representatives would not join even preliminary discussions with Tehran until it suspends its enrichment of uranium — a distinction that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has called counterproductive.
In June, when Solana traveled to Tehran to present a sweetened offer to Iran to negotiate, the United States pointedly did not join other members in the international coalition in sending a senior official to the meeting. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at the time that no U. S. representative would attend unless “Iran suddenly has a change of tune and says that they will meet the demands of the international community, which are expressed in U. N. Security Council resolutions.”
European officials hailed the news that Burns would go to Geneva as a breakthrough, one that sends a clear message to Iran that the international community was interested in negotiating a solution to the nuclear impasse. “It is a very interesting and important sign by the United States,” one senior European official said Tuesday night.
Obama campaign officials had said that one of the first steps he would take as president would be to end the ban on U. S. officials accompanying Solana.
Solana has proposed that, before the negotiations begin, the two sides have a six-week “freeze for freeze,” under which Iran does not add to its nuclear program and the United States and its allies — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — do not seek additional international sanctions. During this period, the two sides would hash out the contours of further negotiations. But once serious talks begin, Iran would be required to halt uranium enrichment.
