Vol. 73/No. 16      April 27, 2009

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since 1979, when the Iranian people rose up and overthrew the U.S.-backed monarchy of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. Iranian efforts to develop nuclear power began with U.S. help under the shah.

In 2003 Washington accused Tehran of developing nuclear power in order to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied this, explaining Iran needs nuclear energy to develop the country’s industry and agriculture.

The UN Security Council has since imposed a wide range of sanctions against Iran because it has refused to abandon the enrichment of uranium, a process needed both to fuel nuclear plants and to create nuclear weapons. Washington has imposed further sanctions unilaterally.

London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Beijing have periodically held negotiations with Tehran to pressure it to abandon or modify its nuclear program. The administration of George W. Bush demanded Tehran end all uranium enrichment before it would join the talks.

The Obama administration’s proposal reverses that policy. “Engaging with Iran is something we’ve said we will now do without preconditions,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said April 9. “We’ve said all along that Iran is entitled to have a civilian nuclear program, but with that program comes responsibilities.”

When Obama won the U.S. presidential elections last November, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad immediately sent him a letter of congratulations, the first such letter sent to a U.S. president by an Iranian head of state since Washington broke relations with Tehran. In March Obama reciprocated with video greetings to the Iranian people on the occasion of their New Year. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then invited Tehran to participate in a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan sponsored by the United States.

On April 9 Ahmadinejad accepted the proposal for talks with U.S. officials, saying, “dialogue has to be based on justice and respecting rights… . Justice means both sides are treated equally and bilateral rights are respected.” He was speaking at the grand opening of a new nuclear plant in Isfahan on “National Day of Nuclear Technology,” the anniversary of the 2006 date when Iran first produced enriched uranium.

Officials at the ceremony announced that Iran now has 7,000 centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium.

Clinton, however, expressed doubt that Iran has made that much progress. There’s “a great gap between what the IAEA observed about seven weeks—six, seven weeks ago and what the Iranians are now claiming,” she said. The International Atomic Energy Agency inspects Iranian nuclear facilities for the United Nations.

The deputy prime minister of Israel, Silvan Shalom, said he did not oppose U.S. talks with Iran but that “there must be a time limit.” Israeli government officials have talked openly about the possibility of carrying out air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

The day after Obama announced U.S. participation in talks with Tehran, the Treasury Department further tightened U.S. sanctions by blocking financial transactions between the U.S. and Iranian entities made through third parties. “This regulatory action will close the last general entry point for Iran to the U.S. financial system,” a statement by the department said.

On April 7, Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau indicted a Chinese businessman for supposedly helping Iran acquire nuclear and missile technology. “There is no greater threat to the world today than Iran’s efforts to procure nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles,” Morgenthau claimed, as he announced he would seek to extradite the businessman, Li Fang Wei, from China.

Li faces 118 charges of engaging in financial transactions to help Iran purchase metal alloys, in violation of anti-Iran sanctions. Li told the New York Times the materials in question “are sold everywhere in the world.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying, “We resolutely oppose some U.S. departments using their laws to sanction a Chinese company.”  
 
 
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