Editorial
Iran's talks offer
A move that should ensure results
The news that Iran and six of the world's major powers will engage in talks on Tehran's nuclear programme is certainly welcome. And it is so especially because of the worrying manner in which the temperature has gone up in recent times, both in Iran and in the West, owing to the increasing levels of intransigence on both sides.
The Iranians have consistently let it be known that their nuclear programme is geared to peaceful purposes, an assertion the West, especially Washington, has always questioned. Add to that the fiery rhetoric President Ahmadinejad has employed in his denunciations of American policy around the world. For their part, diehards in Washington have not made things any easier by their sabre-rattling against Iran.
Now that the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has responded positively to a message from Iran on the subject of the talks beginning again, there is reason for cautious hope here. President Obama's relief is palpable, given the fact that his administration inherited two wars from his predecessor's and is therefore quite unwilling to add a third one to the list.
Despite what President Obama said a few days ago, in relation to the Iran nuclear issue, about not bluffing on a possible US response to Iran's 'threat', he now sees a diplomatic chance to defuse the crisis. The drums of war, as he sees the situation, will quieten.
That certainly is the expectation. Both sides now need to go into the talks without preconditions. One appreciates the Iranian decision to ask for the talks, a move it would like to present as proof of its peaceful intentions. That is something one cannot quite say about Israel, whose threat to strike Iran's nuclear facilities is one the US and the EU must make sure does not materialise. The truth is that today it is not Iran but Israel which remains a risk to regional security.
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