Is a deal on Iran's nuclear program really around the corner?

Iran, the U.S., and five other nations are meeting in Geneva to hash out a "first step" deal on Iran's nukes. They sound surprisingly optimistic.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader))

In mid-October, with the U.S. government largely shut down, negotiators from the U.S., Iran, and five other countries met in Geneva to set up the groundwork for a deal on the thorny issue of Iran's nuclear program. At the end, all sides agreed that the get-together had been "substantive and forward-looking." That's the kind of anodyne statement that often follows big diplomatic confabs, so not much was made of the meeting.

Iran and the six global powers are sitting down again in Geneva on Thursday and Friday for follow-up negotiations, and the various parties sound surprisingly optimistic about reaching some sort of agreement. The hope is not to solve the impasse over Iran's nuclear program — Tehran insists the only goal is nuclear power; nobody's really buying it — but to give negotiators time to reach a comprehensive solution.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.