FINANCIAL TIMES: …The administration appears undeterred, going into a new round of talks beginning in Geneva on Wednesday with the hope of striking the six-month interim deal. If the talks go well, Iran would dispose of its 20-per-cent-enriched uranium and constrain work on the Arak heavy water reactor that could produce weapons-grade plutonium for a bomb. In return, it would receive a modest easing of sanctions, including access to a small portion of its frozen assets.
Israel’s protestations have obscured the point of this agreement – to prevent Iran from using what will be tortuous and lengthy negotiations to buy time while its centrifuges keep spinning. An accord also tests the intentions of the new centrist government in Tehran, and the extent to which it has been given leeway by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to find a permanent solution to the nuclear programme.
Even more crucial is the wider political context – and the prospect of a thaw in the US-Iran relations after more than 30 years of enmity. Taboos have been shattered already. Iranian and American officials can meet for hours without so much as a protest from hardliners in Tehran. For the first time, Iranian politicians are debating whether to continue referring to the US as the great Satan… (more)
