Nuclear talks with Iran

The White House and Iran have secretly agreed to hold one-on-one talks Iran's nuclear program.

The White House and Iran have secretly agreed to hold one-on-one talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program after the election, The New York Times reported. Citing unnamed administration officials, the Times said that the two countries had agreed “in principle” to direct negotiations—an indication that stringent economic sanctions are weakening the regime’s resolve to defy the world on its nuclear program. President Obama dismissed the report as “not true,” and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi denied “any discussions or negotiations with America.” But Times executive editor Jill Abramson stood by the reporting and insisted the story was “solid and true.”

“We’ll go with The New York Times on this one,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. A top administration official probably hoped news of this deal would boost Obama’s reputation with voters as a “peacemaker.” But what the leak really shows is the president’s incredible naïveté. The mullahs made this bow to diplomacy just to buy more time and “get still closer to having a bomb.” They’ve made four years of progress on this president’s watch, and will get four more if he’s re-elected.

Actually, if this report is true, it shows Iran’s leaders are getting scared, said Mike Shuster in NPR.org. The sanctions orchestrated by Washington and the oil embargo led by the European Union have thrown the country’s economy into chaos. “The bottom fell out of its currency, the rial, a couple of weeks ago, provoking street protests.” The Iranian regime wants talks because it realizes that its very survival is at stake if the economy keeps disintegrating and protests grow more violent.

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Whether it’s Obama or Romney, the winner on Nov. 6 will have no choice but to “try direct talks with Iran,” said Tony Karon in Time.com. Both men know the American people are tired of war, and won’t tolerate “an open-ended conflict that puts the world economy at risk because of potential impacts on oil prices.” The only solution is to sustain the pressure on Iran through sanctions, and hope that the mullahs can be talked out of pursuing their atomic ambitions.

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