WarSclerotic

Iran has decided to accept an offer by the West to renew talks over its nuclear program, according to reports on Tuesday. The talks may be the final chance for Iran to explain, and prove, the nature of its nuclear program before Israel, the U.S., or both take military action to halt it.

Discussions will be held between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – U.S., Britain, France, China, Russia, as well as Germany (the P5+1).

Iran also announced that it would allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit certain areas of Parchin – a key military site near Tehran which the inspectors had requested access to during their two-day visit to Iran in February and on a previous trip in late January. The agency believes explosives testing was carried out at the site, but Iran “did not grant permission,” a statement by the agency said. Other areas of the military site would remain off-limits to the IAEA inspectors, according to reports in The New York Times.

Western officials touted the renewed talks as a true opportunity for the diplomatic track, but officials in Jerusalem expressed concern that the move would be just another attempt by Iran to buy time and continue to develop their nuclear weapons program.

Saeed Jalili – head of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, the official responsible for Iran’s nuclear program – sent a letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying his country was ready to renew nuclear talks with the West. Ashton had sent Jalili a letter offering talks in Oct. 2011, meaning it took Iranian officials six months to respond to Ashton’s offer.

“Today I have replied to Dr. Jalili’s letter of February 14,” Ashton, speaking on behalf of the six powers after weeks of consultations with them, said in a statement. “I have offered to resume talks with Iran on the nuclear issue.”

“Our overall goal remains a comprehensive, negotiated, long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program, while respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Ashton said in her reply to Jalili.

Initial talks between Iran and the West began in Oct. 2009 and ended in Istanbul, Turkey in Jan. 2011. The talks are scheduled to restart in Istanbul in April, and will focus, as they did the first time, on how to get Iran to stop its uranium enrichment progress.

“We have a window of opportunity where this can still be resolved diplomatically. We are going to continue to apply pressure even as we provide a door for the Iranian regime to walk through where they can rejoin the community of nations,” U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

As for his expectations concerning the talks, Obama said he is not expecting a breakthrough in the first meeting, but the West will know relatively quickly just how serious the Iranians are. He said the only thing the U.S. has not done yet is to declare war on Iran, and all the rest was idle talk.

Obama warned against a premature strike on Iran, saying “This is not just a matter of an Israeli interest, this is an American interest. If a strike will take place too early the repercussions will not only affect Israel. There will also be repercussions on the United States. Whenever we consider military action, we have to understand there will be a price to pay for that.”

Speaking to members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – a pro-Israel lobby – on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “Of course we prefer the diplomatic track, but don’t be mistaken, if all else fails, we will take action.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron for his part urged Israel not to strike Iran, saying he believed sanctions could still cause the Islamic Republic to stop its uranium enrichment program. “We think that military action against Iran by Israel would not be the right approach. We’ve said that both publicly and privately to the Israelis,” Cameron said. “We think this track of sanctions and pressure has further to run. And we think we should run that as hard and as fast as we can to persuade the Iranians to change track.”

Meanwhile, military cooperation between Israel and the U.S. has continued. Channel 2 TV reported on Tuesday that a senior U.S. official confirmed an Israeli request for bunker-buster bombs designed specifically to penetrate heavily fortified nuclear facilities. According to the official, Israel also requested refueling aircraft (tankers), and Obama will most likely grant the requests, which were apparently raised during talks between Obama and Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday.