European negotiators are welcoming US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will make a decision on US military action in Iran within two weeks, telling CNN it offers “breathing space” and “a diplomatic window” that could get Iran back to the negotiating table.
Speaking ahead of nuclear talks between top European and Iranian officials in Geneva, Switzerland, one Western European diplomat told CNN that “ideas” would be presented to Iran “to see if there is room for maneuver and to explore what is possible.”
The diplomat refused to be drawn on specifics but reiterated that the crux of the matter remained Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment program and that the talks would focus on “what kind of compromise would be feasible” on that issue.
But enrichment — which Iran says it needs for peaceful purposes, while also manufacturing large quantities of near-weapons-grade material — is a major sticking point, with the Trump administration vowing that any agreement with Iran would have to entirely prohibit the country from enriching any nuclear material.
For decades, Iran, which denies it intends to build a nuclear weapon, has categorically refused to give up its capabilities — instead plowing billions of dollars into refining the technology and constructing vast enrichment facilities, like the secretive Fordow installation, which is built deep underground inside a mountain.
After launching its first wave of strikes on Iran, Israel pointed to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which acknowledged Iran is enriching uranium to a higher level than other countries without nuclear weapons programs, in violation of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
But after more than a week of intensive Israeli airstrikes, which has seen Iran lose large parts of its enrichment program, the Islamic Republic’s hardline calculations may eventually change, the Western European diplomat told CNN.
“Because Iran is now under immense military pressure, it might run out of options, and their nuclear capability is being degraded,” the diplomat said.
Until Trump’s decision to allow diplomacy another shot, the Geneva talks had looked like a European sideshow, with the US seemingly poised to join with Israel in the destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities.
The meeting, between the EU’s foreign policy chief, alongside the British, French and German foreign ministers and their Iranian counterpart, is now taking on greater significance, setting the stage for next steps and possibly acting as a bridge between Iran and the United States.
But there is an underlying fear in Geneva that the reinvigorated talks here, the first formal meetings with Iranian representatives since the escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict, will still go nowhere.
Even Trump’s announcement of a two-week window may be a ploy by the mercurial American president to play for time, the Western European diplomat told CNN, while US military forces are assembled and readied for the “big gamble” of a military intervention that “could inflame the region.”
“It’s impossible to read anything Trump says because there is a daily barrage of statements,” the diplomat added.
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