Iran
and the six world powers seeking to negotiate with it took a step back
from confrontation Saturday when they reopened talks after an almost
year and a half break. The discussions in Istanbul
went well, both sides said, as they focused on the disputed Iranian
nuclear program. The two sides agreed to meet again—in Baghdad on May
23.
It was a turning point at a time of increasing tensions with Iran
over its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. This is true even though
there was no agreement on measures to take and neither side made
proposals. EU foreign policy representative Catherine Ashton, who speaks
for the so-called P5 plus 1 negotiating team of Britain, China, France,
Germany, Russia and the United States called the discussion
"constructive and useful.” The word "constructive” was significant. The
test of the talks had been to see if Iran, which claims its program is a
drive to use the atom peacefully, would talk seriously about nuclear
matters.
The idea was to get started on talks that had a chance of succeeding.
Said Ashton: "We want now to move to a sustained process of serious
dialogue, where we can take urgent practical steps to build confidence
and lead on to compliance by Iran with all its international
obligations.” This "step-by-step approach” with "reciprocity” of rewards
for compliance is designed to "lead to concrete steps towards a
comprehensive negotiated solution which restores international
confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear
program,” Ashton said in a final statement after the intense 10 hours of
talks, during which Iran rejected a request for a bilateral meeting
with US representative Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman. Iranian
negotiator Saeed Jalili did meet separately with the Russian envoy
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
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