Yesterday Iran, France, the US, and Russia held the first day of nuclear talks. The issue concerns what to with Iran’s stockpile enriched uranium, material that can reprocessed to fuel nuclear power plants or refined into nuclear weapons. The US wants Iran to ship the material abroad. The chief UN representative at the talks said they got off to a “good start.” According most reports, however, nothing substantive got done. In fact, the New York Times reported Iran negotiators started out threatening they first wanted new supplies of nuclear fuel.
The shaky start to the talks adds fuel to the speculation that Iran might be using the talks to play for time. Reuters reported last week that Iranian officials admitted as much.
Bottom line is White House has little to show for its negotiating efforts so far other than winning a trip to Copenhagen.
