Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.559315
Good Cop, Bad Cop at Geneva
(Ha'aretz) Anshel Pfeffer - Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in charge of projecting the friendly face of "new" Iran under President Hassan Rouhani. His deputy and chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, is the "bad cop" who insists on major points of contention with the West. Araghchi told Iranian reporters in Geneva that Iran's demand to be allowed to continue enriching uranium was a "red line" and that the first stage of the talks would be about reducing the international sanctions on Iran's oil trade and banking system. Two of the main principles of the Western powers at the talks are no mention of Iran's right to enrich uranium in the interim agreement and no reduction of the banking and oil sanctions before the signing of a comprehensive and final agreement.