Report: Obama weighs unfreezing Iranian assets as reward for nuclear concessions
The US is weighing the possibility of unfreezing billions of dollars of Iranian assets in response to potential concessions by Tehran on its nuclear program discussed at the recently concluded nuclear talks in Geneva, The New York Times quoted a senior Obama administration official as saying on Thursday.
The move would allow Washington to give Iran some economic relief gradually without dismantling the sanctions regime which has been built internationally in the face of the Islamic Republic’s failure to comply with Western demands regarding its controversial nuclear program.
The Times quoted the US official as saying the prospect of unfreezing Iranian assets was equivalent to “opening and closing a financial spigot.”
Despite the Obama administration referring to the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers as the most detailed and serious to date, Washington remains reluctant to scale back sanctions without actions on the ground from Iran. However, the Times quoted Obama administration officials as saying that they are urging the US Senate to refrain from passing new oil industry sanctions against Tehran prior to the next round of nuclear talks, scheduled for November 7-8 in Geneva.
However, some senators seemed intent on moving forward with sanctions, arguing that Iran has not gone far enough in what it is prepared to concede.
The Times quoted Republican Senator Mark Kirk as saying, “Given Iran’s refusal to halt its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs the Senate should immediately move forward with a new round of economic sanctions targeting all remaining Iranian government revenue and reserves.”
Israel has stated that it would only accept a deal if it meant a total dismantling of the nuclear program similar to what was carried out in Libya.
Senior Western diplomat: Nuclear deal with Iran not close
A senior western diplomat cautioned on Thursday that any breakthrough in diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program was not “close”, seeking to dampen expectations the next round of talks could lead to a deal.
Despite the improved atmosphere, diplomats said major differences remained between western governments, which suspect Iran’s nuclear work has covert military goals, and Tehran, which denies that and demands the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
In Brussels, a senior diplomat said the talks in Geneva – the first such meeting since relative moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in Iran in August – had left negotiators “more reassured than we were before”.
“We learned more about their program and their concerns,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “However, it doesn’t mean we are close to a solution and that we will have an agreement next month.”
In a series of meetings with Iran since last year, envoys from six world powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – have demanded that it abandon enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, an important step on the way to producing weapons fuel, in return for modest sanctions relief.
Tehran has spurned their offer and demanded that major restrictions on trade in oil and on its banking sector are eliminated first.
Under Rouhani, Iran appears keen to push for a deal. Sanctions have drastically reduced the OPEC producer’s oil export revenues and helped cut the value of its rial currency.
But Tehran remains in contravention of UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment and other sensitive nuclear activities.
Few details have emerged from the talks in Geneva this week, but in a sign of a dramatic shift from confrontation to dialogue, the two sides issued a joint statement to say that Tehran’s proposals presented at the meeting were an “important contribution”.
Nuclear experts and sanctions specialists from Iran and the six nations, led in diplomacy with Iran by the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, will meet in the coming weeks to prepare the next round of negotiations in Geneva.
Reuters contributed to this report.
WarSclerotic 
October 18, 2013 at 10:18 AM
It is scary watch the implementation of Obama’s shameful appeasement policies. You just need to have read Churchill’s The Gathering Storm to see how eerily similar the arguments were then as they are now. But then, Obama returned Churchill’s bust to Britain so the probability that he read the book is almost nil.
This is really becoming the case of the frog in warm/hot water. Every few weeks between rounds of nuclear talks the temperature goes up a few degrees. The time has come to jump out of the water or get boiled i.e. incinerated in a nuclear war. The only country which will jump out of the water will be Israel.
How is it that that the rest of the world does not see what Israel sees? How come they do not see that they too will be the target of a nuclear-armed Iran? How come the Europeans, especially the Brits, seem to have forgotten their own history of appeasement and where it brought them to in the 1930s? Why don’t Americans care that their president is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood? Why don’t American Jews care that their president supports the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are so many people indifferent to the absurd appeasement policies of their governments, policies which will impact their lives… and worse, get them killed?
The answer, of course, is in what Churchill called the confirmed unteachability of mankind. “Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong “
Israel is different. Israel has been the front line on the bloody borders of Islam, both Sunni and Shi’a, in the clash of civilizations, for some time now. Most Israelis have not read Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, nor Winston Churchill. Their insight is purely empirical. But it makes them see where others are blind.
That is why Israel’s message to the world is – we are not going to get killed because of your stupidity and indifference. We will act. We have no other choice except the choice to defend ourselves or be incinerated.
As we wait for Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear sites…
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2013/10/as-we-wait-for-israel-to-strike-iranian.html
October 18, 2013 at 1:06 PM
”Tehran Trails, Part One
Today have started in Tehran, the American Zone, the trails of the Islamic Shiite officials who are been accused of starting the war with the premeditate intention of commit genocide. The principal figures of the prosecution are from the US, France, Great Britain and the Gulf Countries Council. The Russians were not allowed to take part to those trails because of their part in the construction of the Iranian nuclear program.
On the defense bench are the command chain of the Iranian army and the republican guards commanders. Several clerks are also present there. After the outcome of the war, the supreme religious leader took his life and has been proclaimed ”martyr” by his followers.
As the world already knows by now, the hostilities were started by a nuclear preemptive strike on Israel by the Iranian Islamic republic, three nuclear devices being exploded in the north, center and south Israel. The causalities on the Israeli side were staggering, about a million perished in the simultaneous attack. There were no second strike from the Israeli territory and not from its subs fleet. There is a theory that the electronic equipment of the Israeli subs was compromised by a cyber attack, prior to the nuclear attack on that country.
The war that sparked after that development left millions of Muslims killed in retaliation strikes on Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Iran was occupied by American, British and French forces. The Arab countries in Gulf also took part in the punishment actions, having a certain zone in the country under their laws. We’ll bring more details from the trails of the war criminals as we’ll get them.
The West Star newspaper, Robert Dune, war correspondent, Oct 18, 2020. ”