A senior US diplomat will meet with a top Iranian representative at talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva this weekend, a State Department official confirmed on Tuesday.
Undersecretary of State William Burns, the US State Department’s No. 3 official, will attend a meeting in Geneva on Saturday between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Tehran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili “to receive the Iranian response to the latest offer of the P5 plus 1 [Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US],” the official said, requesting anonymity.
In a shift in US policy, the meeting was planned as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany seek to reach an agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
A State Department official told the Washington Post that Burns will not negotiate and will not hold separate meetings with the Iranians. Instead, he will reiterate Washington’s insistence that Iran stop its uranium enrichment operations before the US can enter into any serious negotiations.
“This is a one-time deal,” the official told the Post.
The US move comes amid speculation sanctions have started to have an effect and that Iran’s leadership was locked in debate about how to respond to the international offer.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Jalili and Solana were to discuss a “timetable” for future negotiations to break the deadlock between the two sides.
“It is possible that in the near future talks in different fields will take place with the United States,” he said, without further explanation.
Meanwhile, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said Iran can deter any threats against it.
“The enemies of Iran would not dare to undertake any direct threat or any other action against Iran,” Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency yesterday.
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