Peace In Our Time Alert: the Neville Chamberlain Administration is giving way entirely to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. From AP, with thanks to aaa:
World powers have compromised on a demand that Iran commit to a long-term moratorium on uranium enrichment and are asking only for suspension during talks on Teheran’s nuclear program, diplomats said Wednesday.
In another concession, Iran would be allowed to carry out uranium conversion – a precursor to enrichment – if it agrees to multination talks, the diplomats said. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to divulge the contents of the offer made by six countries to Teheran Tuesday in a bid to defuse the Iranian nuclear standoff.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who formally presented the offer to Iranian officials this week – said Wednesday that the issue of enrichment would have to be reassessed once talks were completed.
“In principle … they will have to stop now, we will have to negotiate with no process of enrichment in place,” he told reporters in the German city of Potsdam. “After the finalization of the negotiations we will see what happens.”
Solana said the incentive offer came with “no specific timeframe,” but that he expected an Iranian answer within “weeks.”
Such changes to long-standing international demands on enrichment are important because they signal possible readiness to accept some limited form of the activity, despite fears that it can be misused to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
Since talks between key European nations and Iran broke off in August, the public stance by the European negotiators and the United States has been that Iran must commit to a long-term moratorium on enrichment to establish confidence as a precondition for talks on the nuclear standoff.
At least until now.