Iran Opinion: Why Real Negotiations Have Not Occurred --- And Why We Still Need Them (Nedal/Wheeler)

Negotiators Ashton (EU) and Jalili (Iran)For the past 10 years, alarmists have declared vehemently that time is short and should not be wasted on negotiations. Moderates seem almost ready to give up. But this would be a tragic move, not because negotiations stand a chance of succeeding given the dominant mind-sets shaping policy on both sides, but because they are the only thing that stands a chance of preventing the worst possible outcome: war.

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Iran Feature: Can Tehran and the West Close the Nuclear "Trust Gap"? (Wheeler/Nedal)

The flaw at the heart of Western policy has been its failure to recognise the extent to which its use of threats as a means of leveraging concessions from Iran has served to increase Iranian mistrust. This, in turn, has strengthened the hand of those members of the Iranian leadership who argue that the only means of safeguarding the country’s security lies in the maintenance of a latent nuclear weapons capability.

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