ShareThisThe Obama administration has said the United States will participate with five other nations in formal talks with Iran over its nuclear program now that Iran seems finally willing to discuss it.
The Iranians say they are open to discussing everything but with an important caveat: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran will not stop enriching uranium and will not negotiate over its right to have a nuclear program.
No one disputes Iran's right to a peaceful, nonmilitary nuclear energy program -- in fact, it is enshrined in an international treaty -- but there is wide suspicion that Iran may secretly have a nuclear weapons program.
Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful, but the Mideast and the West would sleep easier at night if Tehran would let U.N. inspectors verify that. So far, it has refused.
That has led to three rounds of U.N. sanctions with the U.S. pushing for more, perhaps an embargo on gasoline and diesel fuel that Iran is unable to refine in sufficient quantities for its domestic needs.
Partners with the U.S. in these talks are the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- China, Russia, France and the U.K., plus Germany. But there's disagreement among the partners going into the talks, set to start Oct. 1. China will not back any sanctions and Russia says it won't back any new sanctions.
That makes these meetings critical to a diplomatic resolution of the question of Iranian nuclear intentions, a course much preferable to brute economic force or the threat of military action.
Some critics say the talks will be pointless and that participating in them only confers legitimacy on a corrupt, repressive regime, most recently kept in office by a stolen election. Perhaps so, but it's still important that the U.S. and Iran talk. The nuclear program is not the only issue between the two countries.
The U.S. would like Iranian help in stabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq and cutting off funds to destabilizing forces like Hamas and Hezbollah. Some progress on human rights would be nice, too.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
