US, Iran to defrost ties

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and Iran’s new president may meet briefly next week for the first time, marking a symbolic but significant step toward easing their countries’ tense relationship.
An exchange of letters between the leaders has raised expectations for a revival of stalled nuclear talks, though Iran is still likely to seek an easing of international sanctions in exchange for significant progress.
Iran’s leaders appear to be opening wider a door to detente in their nuclear dispute with the US Washington is weighing whether Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s recent overtures represent new policies or just new packaging.
“Negotiations with the Iranians is always difficult,” Obama said in a recent interview with ABC. “I think this new president is not going to suddenly make it easy. But, you know, my view is that if you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rigorous diplomatic effort, that, in fact, you can strike a deal.”
Both Obama and Rouhani will be in New York next week for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The White House hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a direct exchange, though spokesman Jay Carney said no meeting is scheduled.
Obama has long said he would be open to discussions with his Iranian counterparts if Tehran shows it is serious about curbing its nuclear program.
Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is enriching uranium to levels needed for medical isotopes and reactor fuel. But Western powers, including the US, fear Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran has repeatedly said it wants sanctions eased as a first step to make any significant progress in nuclear negotiations. Sanctions levied by the US and Europe have contributed to a rapid rise in inflation and unemployment in Iran.
Any progress on the nuclear issue could depend on how the US and Iran handle negotiations to dismantle Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile. Iran is the chief benefactor to Syria, where an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on Damascus suburbs killed as many as 1,400 people, according to US and Western intelligence agencies, who blame the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Iran has been vociferous in its condemnation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. In an interview with NBC that aired this week, Rouhani called for “the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the entire region.” He also said that Iran, “under no circumstances, would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”
Robert Einhorn, who left the State Department in May after serving as special adviser for arms control and a negotiator on the talks with Iran, said the nuclear discussions could dissolve if the Syria plan fails.
“On the other hand, if you had a good deal, if the current efforts resulted in the end of Syria’s chemical weapons program — verifiably, credibly and quickly, with the absence of military action — I think this could have very positive implications on prospects of diplomacy and willingness to take a risk on diplomacy in the case of Iran,” Einhorn said.
Since Rouhani’s election in June, he and Obama have exchanged letters in what US officials describe as an encouraging easing of Iran’s defiance of the US
In contrast to his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani is widely seen as a moderate politician who may have more autonomy to govern under Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It’s unclear how many letters Obama and Rouhani have exchanged. The US president sent at least one letter after Rouhani’s inauguration in early August, and Iranian officials say the new president did respond.
White House officials said Obama’s letter to Rouhani touched on the long-stalled negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Officials said Obama indicated that Washington was ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that would allow Iran to demonstrate that its program was exclusively for peaceful purposes.
“The letter also conveyed the need to act with a sense of urgency to address this issue,” Carney said.
In 2009, shortly after taking office, Obama also wrote to Khamenei expressing a desire for a different type of relationship between their countries. People familiar with the outreach say Khamenei responded with a letter of his own but gave little ground.
Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, said Rouhani has a narrow window of opportunity to show the US and the international community that he’s more serious about negotiations than his predecessors.
“He doesn’t have much time to show that his approach is more effective than the regime previously,” Parsi said. “It’s important for him to present something at the UN that is very memorable, that really adds to what he has already been doing over the last couple of weeks.”
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Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lara Jakes in Washington and Brian Murphy in Dubai contributed to this report.