WarSclerotic

Iran put forward proposals regarding the standoff over its nuclear program in talks with six world powers that began in Geneva on Tuesday, a European Union spokesman said.

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters that Iranian officials presented the ideas in PowerPoint format, but he gave no details.

Mann said there was a sense of “cautious optimism” ahead of the two-day meeting, and that Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Tehran’s chief negotiator, dined together on Monday evening in a “very positive atmosphere.”

The talks were continuing but Iran “certainly made some proposals this morning,” Mann said, adding the powers were looking for concrete, constructive ideas from the Iranian side. Iranian media said the package was entitled “Closing an unnecessary crisis, opening new horizons,” but did not elaborate.

Proposals that the powers — the U.S., U.K, France, China, and Russia, plus Germany — put forward earlier this year remained on the table in Geneva but they were prepared to “react” to Iran’s suggestions, Mann said.

The powers have called for Iran halt its higher-grade uranium enrichment, shut its underground Fordo enrichment plant and ship out some of its uranium stockpile. In return, they offered to relax sanctions on gold, precious metals and petrochemicals trade, but Iran has spurned this as insufficient.

Iran resumed negotiations with the six powers on Tuesday after a six-month hiatus. It is under pressure to propose scaling back its disputed nuclear program to win relief from crippling sanctions.

The two-day meeting, the first since relative moderate Hasan Rouhani was elected Iran’s president on a platform to ease its international isolation, is seen as the best chance in years to defuse a long stand-off over Iran’s nuclear ambitions that has heightened the risk of a new Middle East war.

In a possible sign of the Islamic republic’s determination to engage meaningfully, the talks in Geneva were expected to be held in English for the first time, said a senior U.S. State Department official, who asked not to be named.

On the eve of the talks, Washington held out the prospect of quick sanctions relief if Tehran moves swiftly to allay concerns about its nuclear program, although both countries said any deal would be complex and take time.

Western diplomats said it remained unclear whether proposals for ending the dispute that Iran promised to put forward in the meeting would be sufficient to enable headway to be made.

Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to make nuclear weapons behind the screen of a declared civilian atomic energy program. Tehran denies this but its refusal to curb sensitive nuclear activity or permit unfettered U.N. inspections has drawn tough international sanctions.