Daily Telegraph: by David Blair: The conference centre was cleared of alcohol, a prayer room prepared and female officials advised to dress with a special touch of modesty. When Iran’s negotiators are in town, the challenge of hosting them without offending their fragile sensibilities follows in their wake.
These black-clad, silver-haired men came to Istanbul yesterday to do verbal battle with the world’s leading powers. With hardened realism, a diplomat warned beforehand that a wise observer would set his sights low.
Nonetheless, Iran is back at the negotiating table, formally meeting its adversaries for the first time in more than a year. Not only is the Islamic Republic talking again, but its leaders have quietly dropped a raft of preconditions and begun discussing their nuclear ambitions.
Incredible as it may seem, Iran refused to talk about its nuclear programme – the crux of its confrontation with much of the rest of the world – when the last negotiating session was held.
This is not the stuff of breakthroughs, yet by the modest standards of diplomacy between the West and Iran, yesterday’s gathering counted as the small blow of a chisel on permafrost. Speaking about the talks last night, a Western diplomat hailed a new “constructive” attitude from Tehran, but cautioned against expecting too much.
Could we please not join the propaganda. What about the the tinderbox of thousands of nuclear weapons in Israel and the USA? Iran did not attack any country in 300 years, whereas these countries are constantly seeking war, driven by the interests of international predators Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve.