Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 30 / Trend, S. Isayev
Iran's president Hassan Rouhani is in a rush to solve country's nuclear issue both because of Iran's current situation and because he needs to quickly show results, Senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, James M. Dorsey told Trend.
Not long ago, Rouhani has stated that he wants to reach a nuclear deal with the West, within 3 or 6 months.
"The devil is always in the detail. Just how difficult a deal will become evident when negotiators sit down to flesh out the detail," Dorsey explained. "Rouhani is probably to a great extent aware of what it will take to conclude a deal given that he has experience as a nuclear negotiator."
Dorsey went on to note that "three to six months is optimistic but confidence building will certainly help."
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is set to lead the nuclear talks from Iranian side, and in one of his latest interviews he said that country's right to peaceful nuclear enrichment was not negotiable, however adding that Iran doesn't need to enrich uranium to military-grade levels.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
Dorsey believes holding the talks on nuclear issue on the level of foreign minister is beneficial for both sides.
"Raising the level to that of foreign ministers give the talks increased importance and means that negotiations are taking place between officials who are real players in policy making," he said. "It also raises the pressure to produce results."
"This also constitutes recognition of the fact that the new foreign minister of Iran who has already taken a very different tone from his predecessor is the chief negotiator," Dorsey added. "It will also help clarify quickly whether a deal is possible."
It should be noted that on Sept. 26, the meeting between Iranian negotiating team led by FM Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his counterparts from the country-members of the P5+1 group on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
The talks were aimed at jump-starting efforts to resolve a decade-long standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry shook hands with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the United Nations in one of the foes' highest-level encounters since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was the first meeting between a U.S. secretary of state and an Iranian foreign minister since a brief encounter in May 2007.
Also, Iranian and U.S. presidents Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama spoke by phone last Friday, in the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades.
Reuters has recently reported that John Kerry said a deal on Iran's nuclear weapons program could be reached relatively quickly, and it would have the potential to dramatically improve the relationship between the two countries.
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