Iran Says It’s Ready to Negotiate on Nukes

Via Laura Rozen, Reuters translates a report from Iranian state TV quoting the regime’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying “talks without preconditions is Iran’s main stance in negotiations on the nuclear issue.” So there it is: two months after apparently stealing the June 12 election, the Iranians now say they’re ready to negotiate, just weeks before a deadline set by President Obama for Iran to either take up an enrichment offer from the so-called P5+1 (the five U.N. Security Council permanent member-states and Germany) or face a new sanctions threat.

That sets up the dynamic I wrote about in this post:

Does the administration and its allies then try to link human rights obligations to any nuclear deal, knowing that the regime won’t accept that, and thereby jeopardizing the prospect of keeping Iran free of nuclear weapons? (And that’s presuming that, say, China and Russia will accept that, which they probably won’t.) Or does it hold to its top priority of preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and implicitly grant the regime legitimacy? Right now, though, the administration’s construction at least buys it time to judge Iranian intentions — and decide whether a regime willing to so blatantly steal an election is really rational enough to hew to its international obligations.

I have some emails and tweets out to Iranian opposition figures to see what they think of this, and how the United States ought to respond.