Iran Might Hold Talks with US

How would one be able to make sense out of this bizarre string of decisions? This is anyone's guess.

What cannot be a guess is US's position in the Iranian nuclear dispute, which was highlighted on Wednesday, when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that: "As soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table. It is time to know whether Iran is serious about negotiation or not".


When faced with a potentially difficult question related to US's possibility of applying military punitive measures to Iran, Rice claimed that President George Bush "was not going to take any of his options off the table", which in other terms means that, should he consider it necessary and achievable, in terms of costs and resources, he might envisage such an alternative.

Yesterday's news press conference came amid growing tensions over the US administration, both from the inside, as well as from outside US partners, to find a solution in order to break the diplomatic standstill. The conference was labeled by many analysts as a major foreign policy change from the US, and an effort to claim an initiative in the nuclear issue.

In response, the Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki stated on the Iranian national television yesterday, that his country "will not give up our nation's natural right [to enrichment], we will not hold talks over it. But we are ready to holds talks over mutual concerns" and that, if the US "is interested in any change in the existing situation, it should change its behavior and behave properly and logically".

A BBC correspondent in Tehran, Frances Harrison, stated that Iran is fighting now for its sovereign right to produce nuclear material, and although it expressed its desire to hold talks with the US, which means "more room for maneuver", it does not want the international community to interpret this as a way for getting bribed over the nuclear issue.