For a second day in a row, coverage of nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran emphasized expressions of optimism while noting that Iranian negotiators have not in fact offered anything substantively concrete or new.
Officials quoted by Reuters yesterday described "no apparent narrowing
of differences" and worried that what was known about Iran's offer would
"allow them to keep their whole program." The
Washington Post's
Anne Applebaum evaluated "the sudden good cheer" and contrasted it with
the lack of any "radical new strand of Iranian thinking about nuclear
power" represented by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani or any "profound
break from those who have run the Islamic Republic since its inception."
She specifically cited concerns over Rouhani's Justice Minister Mostafa
Pour-Mohammadi, who has
for years been
subject to intense criticism by human rights groups for his
participation in the mass murder of anti-regime dissidents. Leaked
details of Iran's offer to the P5+1 indicated that Iran had offered a
three-stage plan that would allow Tehran to keep enriching uranium in
exchange for snap inspections of known nuclear facilities. The insidery
KGS NightWatch security
bulletin unpacked the offer and noted that "snap inspections of
declared facilities is a deceptively easy concession to make" because
"Iran already has been found to have built at least one facility that
was not declared."
NightWatch compared the offer to ones made
by Rouhani when he led Iran's nuclear negotiations in the mid-2000s,
during which Iran would "offer small compromises by Iran in return for
major concessions by the West and others."
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