Freed from the constraints of a lengthy election campaign,US President Barack Obama now has another shot at pressing Iran throughdiplomacy to scale back its nuclear programme, analysts say. But despiteObama's increased leeway and tough sanctions against Iran, resolving thedecade-old deadlock and silencing Israel's "drums of war" remains atall order indeed.
A new round of talks between Iran and six world powers, thefirst since June, is expected by the end of the year, or at the latest in early2013, analysts say. A rare bilateral US-Iran meeting might even happen. But thequestion is, what will be on the table? Iran won't be making concessions unlessit gets some form of sanctions relief.
The last offer from the P5+1 -- the US, China, Russia,Britain, France and Germany -- was made to Iran in May by the group's chiefnegotiator, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, in high-level talks inBaghdad. This "Stop, Shut and Ship" package called on Iran to ceaseenriching uranium to purities of 20 percent -- technically speaking not farshort of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon. It also told Iran to closeits Fordo enrichment facility, and to export its existing stockpiles of20-percent uranium.
Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful,rejected the proposals as they failed to offer sufficient relief from sanctionsthat have begun to cause real problems for its economy, while insisting on arecognition of its "right" to enrich.
Time is also of the essence because every day Iran isenriching more uranium and expanding its nuclear facilities. This fact is notlost on Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-weapon state,which sees its very existence threatened by a nuclear Iran, and which has madeno secret that it may resort to military action.
