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Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman leads the U.S. delegation for the P5+1 talks with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 15, 2013. Also pictured in the photo are E.U. High Representative Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Photo courtesy of the U.S. State Department.
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By Abraham Shanedling
Last week, Iran and six world powers concluded two days of talks
about Tehran’s nuclear program—the first formal negotiations between Iran and
the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council since the
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.
Despite a lack of details about the discussions, Iran’s
foreign minister and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, issued a rare joint
statement following the meetings, calling the talks
“substantive and forward looking.” Further discussions are scheduled in Geneva
for November 7 and 8. However, government officials and nuclear experts among
the United States and its allies remain sharply divided on whether the
negotiations represent a positive shift in relations with Tehran warranting “cautious
optimism” or whether the world community should
increase pressure on the regime to prevent Iran from using yet another round of
negotiations as a delay tactic while the country strengthens critical nuclear capabilities.
Now that the government shutdown/debt-ceiling “debate” has
been punted until next year, Iran sanctions legislation will likely resurface
as a key issue in Congress. Appearing two weeks ago before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. negotiator in Geneva, urged
Congress to delay imposing stringent new Iran
sanctions legislation until after the negotiations in Switzerland. The bill,
which passed
overwhelmingly (400-200) in the House in July and is now
pending in the Senate, aims to cut Iran’s oil exports by another million
barrels per day over the course of a year, decreasing the country’s oil exports
to near nothing.
