ABC NEWS / AP: iran and the United States are making plenty of friendly gestures, but real progress is going to be harder. A notable first meeting between the two nations’ presidents suddenly seems possible, but without nuclear concessions the U.S. is unlikely to give Tehran what it wants: an easing of punishing sanctions that have resulted in soaring inflation and unemployment.
President Barack Obama and Iran’s new president, Hasan Rouhani, both will be in New York next week for the U.N. General Assembly. And a recent flurry of goodwill gestures has raised the prospect that they will meet face to face.
As part of the effort to cast a promising outlook on Iranian diplomacy, Rouhani touted his commitment to “constructive engagement” in a column published Friday in The Washington Post. He wrote that nations spend a lot of time, perhaps too much, discussing what they don’t want rather than what they do want… (more)
