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Iran confirms exchange of

artappraiser — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 14:54:32 +0000

In reply to Does Obama Have Penpals In Iran?

Iran confirms exchange of letters with Obama
Reuters, DUBAI | Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:21am EDT

Iran said on Tuesday that President Hassan Rouhani had exchanged letters with U.S. President Barack Obama, confirming a rare contact between leaders of the two nations at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear program, the Syrian war and other issues [....]

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday that Obama had sent Rouhani a message of congratulations on the occasion of his election.

"This letter has been exchanged," Afkham said, according to the ISNA news agency. "The mechanism for exchanging these letters is through current diplomatic channels."

Though rare, it is not the first time letters have been exchanged. Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote one to Obama three years ago, and Obama wrote twice directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in 2009 and 2012.

Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday he had exchanged letters with Rouhani. The two men will speak on the same day at the U.N. General Assembly next week, though there are currently no plans for them to meet [....]

Iran's conservatives silent

artappraiser — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:51:20 +0000

In reply to Does Obama Have Penpals In Iran?

Iran's conservatives silent as Rouhani puts nuclear talks on diplomatic footing
Nuclear watch: Iranian president gives foreign affairs minister responsibility for negotiations with the west
Tehran Bureau hosted by theguardian.com, 12 September 2013

The news came in a low-key, brief statement from Hassan Rouhani's public relations office: "The president has handed the responsibility for nuclear negotiations with foreign nations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

No longer would the Iranian side be led by the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). Within hours of the announcement, Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, announced she had contacted Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's new foreign minister, and agreed to meet on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York later this month.

Iranian negotiators have been led since 2003 by the Secretary of the SNSC, at that time none other than Rouhani, who took Iran into two years of negotiations with the European Union during which Tehran suspended all uranium enrichment before a tentative, preliminary agreement broke down.

Rouhani's new move is partly to create a clearer decision-structure but also reflects his confidence in Zarif, who is US-educated as well as known to many US politicians, including vice-president Joe Biden, from his stint in New York from 2002 to 2007 as Iran's UN representative.

"Having a new foreign minister, the first to be respected internationally in three decades, and also a quick decision-making process between him and the president, this is the only workable way to tackle the crippling nuclear crisis," said Kourosh Zaim, a leading member of the opposition National Front party in Tehran.

In the reformist press, Samira Farahbakhsh argued in Mardom Salaarie (Democracy) that Zarif was "held in high esteem" by western diplomats given his "relatively comprehensive understanding of the behaviour of Western players".

It has also been argued it was important for Rouhani to put talks under a diplomatic rather than a security rubric [.....]

And is this one of them chain

artappraiser — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:25:14 +0000

In reply to Does Obama Have Penpals In Iran?

And is this one of them chain letter type things?

Russia Calls for Iran’s Flexibility to End Nuclear Impasse
Readiness to Boost Iran’s Defense Capabilities
By Nader Uskowi, Uskowi on Iran, Sept. 12, 2013

Russia said that Tehran should show flexibility and the “Six” (P5+1) should react to positive steps which are expected from Iran to end the impasse over the country’s nuclear program, RIA Novosti reported today.

“We coherently and permanently speak for the settlement of the situation related to the Iranian nuclear program only through political and diplomatic means, a military solution is absolutely inadmissible. We believe that the negotiations have a chance of success. It is necessary that Iran shows flexibility and readiness to meet the requirements of the international community,” said Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Putin, told reporters (RIA Novosti/Reuters, 12 September)

The Russian official made the comments ahead of Putin’s meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The two will meet tomorrow in Bishkek on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit.

Yesterday, the respected Russian daily Kommersant reported that Putin is ready to offer Rouhani the delivery of the advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and construction of a second nuclear reactor.

The Kommersant report and Ushakov’s comments today could indicate Russia’s eagerness to extract concessions from Iran on the nuclear issue in return for boosting the country’s defense capabilities in order to end the nuclear impasse.