Geneva, Switzerland
CNN
–
European negotiators welcome President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will decide on US military action in Iran within two weeks, and have told CNN it could provide “breathing space” and “diplomacy windows” to bring Iran back to the negotiation table.
Prior to nuclear talks between top Europeans in Geneva, Switzerland and Iranian officials, Western European diplomats told CNN that “ideas” would be presented to Iran, “we will explore what is possible and there is room for manipulation.”
The diplomat refused to be drawn to the details, but the core of the issue remains Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment programme, repeatedly focusing on “what compromises are feasible” on the issue.
But the enrichment that Iran says it needs for peaceful purposes is a major fixture in that it produces a large amount of weapon-grade materials, but the agreement with Iran is pledging to swear that the state must ban it from fully enriching nuclear material.
For decades, Iran, which refused to build nuclear weapons, has resolutely refused to give up its capabilities. Instead, they will narrow down billions of dollars to refine their technology and build a huge number of enrichment facilities, including installing secret fordows built underground in the mountains.
Israel pointed to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency after it launched its first strike in Iran. This acknowledges that Iran enriches uranium at a higher level than other countries without a nuclear weapons program, and violates its nuclear shortage obligation.
But after more than a week of intensive Israeli airstrikes that saw Iran lose most of its enrichment programmes, the Islamic Republic’s hard-line calculations could ultimately change, a Western European diplomat told CNN.
“Now that Iran is under enormous military pressure, it may have no choice and their nuclear capabilities are degraded,” the diplomat said.
Until Trump’s decision to allow diplomacy to another shot, Geneva’s story appears to be a European sideshow, with the US poised to participate with Israel in the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The meeting between the EU’s foreign policy directors, together with foreign ministers in the UK, France and Germany and Iranian counterparts, has taken over greater importance, setting the stage for the next step and acting perhaps as a bridge between Iran and the US.
But there is a fundamental fear in Geneva that the talks of revitalization here, the first formal meeting with Iranian representatives since the escalation of the Israeli-Iran conflict, are yet to go anywhere.
Even Trump’s two-week window announcement, Western European diplomats told CNN, but while the US military was assembled and ready for the “big gambling” of the military “which could inflam the area”; Western European diplomats told CNN.
“It’s impossible to read anything Trump says.