International Crisis Group

Iranian president says nuclear deal with the west is getting closer | Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan

President Hassan Rouhani has said that a nuclear deal with the west is getting closer, as a report emerged of a possible compromise between American and Iranian negotiators over uranium enrichment.

After meeting the heads of the country’s parliament and judiciary, Rouhani was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying: “We have narrowed the gaps,” adding that although “some issues and differences remain … The west has realised that it should recognise the rights of the Iranian people.”

Even Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker and a noted hardliner on nuclear talks, declared himself “not pessimistic” about the trajectory of the negotiations.

Nuclear talks between Iran and six major powers are due to resume later this month in Geneva ahead of a March deadline for arriving at a basic framework agreement. A comprehensive permanent settlement would be reached by the end of June.

FULL ARTICLE (via The Guardian)

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Obama-Rohani Handshake at UN Holds Promise Amid Danger | Indira A.R. Lakshmanan & Kambiz Foroohar

Next week’s United Nations gathering in New York offers Presidents Barack Obama and Hassan Rohani the chance to take a symbolic step beyond the hostility and distrust that have infused three decades of U.S.-Iran relations.

A breakthrough in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and U.S.-backed economic sanctions is possible because of the new Iranian leader’s campaign to make over Iran’s image, marked by moves including the release of political prisoners and an exchange of letters with Obama.

Even a handshake between Obama and Rohani during the opening week of the UN General Assembly would be a milestone as the first direct encounter between the two nations’ leaders since relations ruptured during the 1979 Iranian revolution and U.S. embassy hostage crisis. It also would present risks and rewards for both sides.

FULL ARTICLE (Bloomberg)

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Iran Signals Possible Changes in Nuclear Oversight | Ladane Nasseri

Iran may assign its Foreign Ministry to oversee talks with world powers on the country’s nuclear program, a move that could give President Hassan Rohani more sway over the negotiations and help end Western sanctions.

Rohani, 64, will name a new team and chief negotiator to conduct talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi told journalists in Tehran.

FULL ARTICLE (Bloomberg)

Photo: Sebastian Zwez/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Needs More Forthcoming Approach to Iran: Report | Jim Lobe

With the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, the United States should take a more flexible approach toward Tehran to increase the chances of a successful resolution of the latter’s nuclear programme, according to a new report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) released Tuesday.

The report, “Great Expectations: Iran’s New President and the Nuclear Talks,” urged the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to take a series of measures to enhance the prospects for progress in a likely new round of negotiations between Iran and the so-called P5+1 (the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany) next month.

FULL ARTICLE (IPS News) 

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Time Ripe for Iran Reset | CNN

By Ali Vaez, Crisis Group’s Senior Iran Analyst

The history of Iran-U.S. relations is littered with missed opportunities. The Obama administration should make sure that the victory of a moderate president in Iran doesn’t become another one.

Sending a letter of congratulation to the new president on his inauguration day – August 3 – would be a positive first step. Conservatives in Tehran will have to bite their tongues, remembering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s congratulatory note to Obama in 2009. Republicans in the U.S. Congress, meanwhile, will have a hard time accusing the president of somehow endorsing Iran’s faulty electoral process, given that most U.S. allies in that region don’t even hold elections.

But more important than recognizing the legitimacy of a political process in which well over half of Iran’s population participated is signaling to Iran’s leadership that Washington is willing to find some sort of common ground moving forward. This could, for example, include reversing the U.S. objection to Iran attending the Geneva 2 conference on the future of Syria, a move that could be justified by Tehran’s new political face.

FULL ARTICLE (CNN)

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