(Washington Post) Joby Warrick - Iranian and U.S. officials cited significant progress Wednesday in international talks on Iran's nuclear program, agreeing to hold the next round of formal talks on Nov. 7. The two days of talks in Geneva produced a rare direct meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials. At the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif laid out what Iranian officials described as a "road map" that called for resolving the nuclear dispute over several stages within a year. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Iranian proposal "was new and represents a level of seriousness and substance we have not seen before," though he cautioned that "no one should expect a breakthrough overnight." U.S. officials described the Iranian proposal as extremely detailed and said there were numerous areas of disagreement. White House officials acknowledge that they face a significant challenge in selling any agreement to a skeptical Congress, which is threatening to impose even tougher sanctions on Iran unless it freezes uranium enrichment.
2013-10-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive