Is it Time For Washington, Tehran to Start 'Direct Talks'?

Iran and America may finally be getting hitched. The Persians and the ‘Great Satan’ may finally put aside their differences and start all over again.

Iran and the United States maybe about to embark on a new chapter in relations based on nuclear understanding. Both Tehran and Washington have just agreed to talk directly to each other in Vienna. Their diplomats say now they would be willing to start the wheel churning and meet regularly to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

This is indeed a breakthrough, a major development. In the last two months the nuclear talks between Iran and the 4+1 group of countries of the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany have preceded with the US only taking an indirect role. That meant US diplomats negotiated through their European partners and via the EU head of delegation Enrique Mora who kept continually going back and forth.

That meant talks and negotiations were cumbersome and unwieldy. The US representative to Iran Robert Malley recognized that. He and most of the US administration have long talked about the need for direct negotiations because of the complex nature of the nuclear issues at hand. This requires negotiators to sit directly and opposite rather through third parties and sift through crucially details about sensitive material and technology. That shouldn't be negotiated through third parties.

However, it was Iran which rejected direct talks, insisting it was the US under ex-president Donald Trump that exited the deal and that means it had to wait its turn. All this seems to be changing especially since the nuclear talks seems to be going smoothly. But smoothly on what level nobody seems to be able to discern except to say all the parties - including Washington - want the deal to be revived and revamped quickly.

Everyone to the talks feel a deal can be reached very soon, in fact as early as next month in February. That means US negotiators must take a more direct approach and start talking and address Iranian concerns relating to nuclear reduction, ie going back to the 3 percent enrichment level and not the present 60 percent, the issue of verification and above all the fact that Tehran wants iron-cast guarantees that Washington wont again renegade on an international accord as was the case previously. 

From what is being outlined above there is a lot of technical details that need to be ironed out and that needs face-to-face talks to get to the point were each side is satisfied that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) can be revived. Iran is willing to take the extra mile despite the fact that there is still of the removal of biting US sanctions which has to be removed and yet talked about. 

However, the Iranian leadership, starting from its top decision-maker Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, newly-elected conservative president Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, all want to revive the nuclear deal. The latter put it this way:

"If during the negotiation process we get to a point that reaching a good agreement with solid guarantees requires a level of talks with the US, we will not ignore that in our work schedule," said Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. This everyone takes to mean direct talks.

However, there are people both inside the American administration and in Iran who may not be pleased with the way things are going and want a tougher stand. This include Richard Nephew, the no. 2 after Malley, who resigned his post recently, over the way negotiations are going, saying that sanctions must continue to extract more concessions from the Iranians.

On the other hand it is argued there are many conservative element in the Iranian political establishment who don't like what is happening on the grounds in Vienna nor of the direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington that maybe embarked upon soon. 

But regardless of these elements the road ahead in Austria may indeed be moving towards a new 'less hot' stage international relations and that includes the feeling put out by Israel, which has previously warned against the nuclear deal but may now becoming more flexible to it.