Top Negotiator Wendy Sherman:
U.S. Allies Want Iran Talks to Fail
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator suggested Thursday that some U.S. allies and members of Congress hope diplomacy with Iran fails, offering a glimpse of the difficult task awaiting the Obama administration if it manages to secure a nuclear agreement with Tehran by a late November deadline.
Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, said negotiators are focused on clinching an accord that gives the world confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful. In exchange, Iran would get significant relief from the U.S.-led sanctions.
Significant hurdles remain, however. For the U.S., they include selling an agreement at home and to its closest regional partners.
"We are aware, of course, that this negotiating process is, shall we say, controversial," Sherman said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Some worry that it will fail. Others seem to fear that it will succeed. Many have questions and doubts," she said. "The Obama administration has consulted regularly with members of Congress and with our many overseas partners, including Israel and the (Persian) Gulf states. We have heard a variety of concerns and done our best to answer hard questions."
The U.S. government has come out of those discussions with a reinforced conviction that diplomacy with Iran is worth the risk, Sherman emphasized.
Congress could prove an obstacle in this regard, given threats by Democrats and Republicans to institute new sanctions if the deal isn't to their liking.
Negotiators want to conclude the talks by Nov. 24.
Sherman said talks have progressed at a "deliberative pace, which is diplo-speak for not so fast".
But she said failure of the talks will lead to a dangerous escalation by both Tehran and the West.
On Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani predicted a successful ending to the ongoing nuclear talks between Tehran and six major world powers, saying the Islamic Republic will not regress to the state before the negotiations.
"I just want to restate that we will not go back to the situation in the past; the state of affairs in the world and in the region is such that we will not return to the past and this is something that the world also disapproves of,” he said.
The president also referred to his negotiations with heads of state on the sidelines of the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek , and the 4th summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states in the Russian port city of Astrakhan.
"We found that no one, especially the European countries, want the present situation (standoff on Iran’s nuclear energy program) to continue.”
"We have made every effort to reach a [final] nuclear deal. It is not an easy task to reach an agreement on a highly significant issue with not only one, but six world powers,” Rouhani further said, adding, "Our initial experience indicated that we can reach a successful agreement with them.”
Highlighting the measures taken to finalize the deal, President Rouhani said, "These steps, though, are less than what we expected."
"There’s not much time left; however, a final deal could be reached in the remaining period of time,” the Iranian president said.
Iran and the P5+1 group – Russia, China, France, Britain, the U.S. and Germany – are in talks to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program as a November 24 deadline approaches.
Representatives from Iran and the P5+1 kicked off expert-level talks in the Austrian city of Vienna on Wednesday to discuss differences over a number of issues in the way of reaching a final deal.
Head of Iran’s delegation Hamid Ba’eedinejad said the two sides conducted two days of useful, explicit negotiations, trying to find final solutions to some topics of discussion.
Significant hurdles remain, however. For the U.S., they include selling an agreement at home and to its closest regional partners.
"We are aware, of course, that this negotiating process is, shall we say, controversial," Sherman said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Some worry that it will fail. Others seem to fear that it will succeed. Many have questions and doubts," she said. "The Obama administration has consulted regularly with members of Congress and with our many overseas partners, including Israel and the (Persian) Gulf states. We have heard a variety of concerns and done our best to answer hard questions."
The U.S. government has come out of those discussions with a reinforced conviction that diplomacy with Iran is worth the risk, Sherman emphasized.
Congress could prove an obstacle in this regard, given threats by Democrats and Republicans to institute new sanctions if the deal isn't to their liking.
Negotiators want to conclude the talks by Nov. 24.
Sherman said talks have progressed at a "deliberative pace, which is diplo-speak for not so fast".
But she said failure of the talks will lead to a dangerous escalation by both Tehran and the West.
On Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani predicted a successful ending to the ongoing nuclear talks between Tehran and six major world powers, saying the Islamic Republic will not regress to the state before the negotiations.
"I just want to restate that we will not go back to the situation in the past; the state of affairs in the world and in the region is such that we will not return to the past and this is something that the world also disapproves of,” he said.
The president also referred to his negotiations with heads of state on the sidelines of the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek , and the 4th summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states in the Russian port city of Astrakhan.
"We found that no one, especially the European countries, want the present situation (standoff on Iran’s nuclear energy program) to continue.”
"We have made every effort to reach a [final] nuclear deal. It is not an easy task to reach an agreement on a highly significant issue with not only one, but six world powers,” Rouhani further said, adding, "Our initial experience indicated that we can reach a successful agreement with them.”
Highlighting the measures taken to finalize the deal, President Rouhani said, "These steps, though, are less than what we expected."
"There’s not much time left; however, a final deal could be reached in the remaining period of time,” the Iranian president said.
Iran and the P5+1 group – Russia, China, France, Britain, the U.S. and Germany – are in talks to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program as a November 24 deadline approaches.
Representatives from Iran and the P5+1 kicked off expert-level talks in the Austrian city of Vienna on Wednesday to discuss differences over a number of issues in the way of reaching a final deal.
Head of Iran’s delegation Hamid Ba’eedinejad said the two sides conducted two days of useful, explicit negotiations, trying to find final solutions to some topics of discussion.