Iran softens rhetoric over nuclear deal
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praised on Friday a six-nation incentive package aimed at resolving the international dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.Raising hopes for a breakthrough, Mr Ahmadinejad said the package - which aims to curtail Iran’s uranium enrichment activities - was a “step forward”.
But despite the conciliatory tone of his comments, the president said his government had made no decision about whether to accept the proposal, which is backed by the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
“Generally speaking, we’re regarding this offer as a step forward and I have instructed my colleagues to carefully consider it,” he told reporters in Shanghai. “In due time they will give the response.”
If Iran is sincere, this is good news. It is possible though that this is merely a delaying tactic to give hope to the rest of the world that Iran is negotiating in good faith, while all the time they have no intention of changing their policies. This wouldn’t be a bad strategy for Iran to pursue.
One of the characteristics of democratic governments is that they have a hard time staying focused. If something isn’t a ‘crisis’ it is often relegated to the back burner. By provoking the crisis as they have, Iran is focused the worlds attention on them but by seeming reasonable for a time they can diffuse this attention. The next ‘crisis’ will be harder to focus attention on, as we become complacent and more used to continual ‘crisis’ over a nuclear Iran.
It would not surprise me at all if this is Iran’s strategy, and it would not surprise me if it worked. With the possible exception of the U.S., I don’t think any of the nations involved will get serious with Iran as long as Iran can maintain the impression that their is hope that diplomacy will succeed. I also think that Iran can maintain this sort of false hope for a long time.
I would prefer to be wrong about this. Until I see some concrete concessions (like ceasing nuclear enrichment) I will remain skeptical of Iran’s words however.
