VIENNA — A new Iranian offer to meet with world powers is unusually short on preconditions and suggests Tehran may be ready to touch on some nuclear issues that were previously taboo, according to a copy of a confidential letter from a senior Iranian official.
Shared with The Associated Press, the letter is short on details of what the Islamic republic is ready to discuss with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. But it differs from previous negotiating offers by avoiding demands that the six powers are bound to reject out of hand.
And it says Iran is “ready to cooperate in . . . nonproliferation and peaceful nuclear cooperation.” That’s a possible nod to six-power demands that Tehran address world concerns over its nuclear program and suspicions that it could be used to make weapons — something Iran has refused to do in earlier meetings.
Compared with the country’s previous offer, the letter, by chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, is notable in its moderate tone.
Western diplomats, however, characterized it Tuesday as part of Iran’s new “charm offensive” — an effort to derail plans to refer Teh ran anew to the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear defiance.
The Associated Press
