French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius (Photo: Martial Trezzini/Keystone / Associated Press)A round of high-stakes negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program concluded in Geneva Sunday morning with significant progress but no deal, after France blocked a proposal that it said did not go far enough.
With world powers scheduled to resume talks with Iran on November 20, diplomacy advocates are hopeful a deal will be reached.
“The talks haven’t failed,” said Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, in an interview with Common Dreams. “There is another round next week. The talks just haven’t been completed yet. Diplomacy will work.”
Iran had sought an end to crippling sanctions, while P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany have taken aim at Iran’s still-unproven nuclear weapons program.
Despite significant progress, France blocked an 11th hour proposal over concerns it was too soft on Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had fiercely campaigned against any weakening of sanctions without a complete end to Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, which are unverified. He took to U.S. TV to forcefully condemn what he called a “very bad deal.”
Israel, which is known to possess nuclear weapons, still has not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, unlike Iran.
Hardline opposition to the talks also came from within U.S. government, including vocal members of the Democratic party.
Yet experts say that diplomacy is a viable and crucial alternative to military aggression.
“The important thing is that they are talking,” said Middle East scholar Stephen Zunes in an interview with Common Dreams. “The disappointing thing on the U.S. side is that the hardliners include democrats, like Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Menendez.”
“Diplomacy is the will of the people,” said Naiman.
_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Source: Common Dreams