U.S. Plans First Ever Nuke Talks With Iran
Bush to send diplomat to meeting, despite previous resistance.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008— -- The United States will send a senior diplomat to attend international meetings with Iran this weekend, marking the first time it has engaged Iran directly in talks aimed at halting Tehran's nuclear program.
It will also be one of the rare occasions in the past three decades where U.S. and Iranian diplomats sit down at the same table. The move is a turnaround for the Bush administration, which had said it would not talk with Iran until it suspended its nuclear ambitions.
William Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, will travel to Geneva Saturday to meet with Iran's nuclear negotiator alongside representatives from five world powers who have tried to convince Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.
"The fact that Undersecretary Burns will be attending the meeting really serves to clarify the choices that the Iranian regime faces," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters today.
"It sends a strong signal to the world; it sends a strong signal to the Iranian government that the United States is committed to diplomacy, to finding a diplomatic solution to this issue," he said.
Bush administration officials have resisted calls for direct engagement with Iran for two years, saying they would only do so if Iran suspends its nuclear program.
"We would be willing to meet with them, but not while they continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon under the cover of talk," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last month in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "So the real question is not: Why won't the Bush administration talk to Tehran? The real question is: Why won't Tehran talk to us?"
The United States has not had diplomatic ties with Iran for almost 30 years, dating to 1979 when American diplomats were held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days.
Since then, meetings between the two countries have been few and far between, usually occurring at large international gatherings like those at the United Nations.
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