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U.S. Envoy to Join Meeting with Iranian on Nuclear Program

[New York Times ] Steven Lee Myers - President Bush has authorized the most significant American diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, sending the State Department's third-ranking official to Geneva for a meeting on Saturday on Iran's nuclear program, administration officials said Tuesday. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns will attend the meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, who is expected to present Iran's formal response to a package of economic and diplomatic incentives presented to Iran in June. The decision appeared to bend the administration's insistence that it would not negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programs unless it first suspended uranium enrichment. Clifford Kupchan of the Eurasia Group, a consultancy in Washington, said, "Disclaimers notwithstanding, the precondition that Iran must suspend [enrichment] before the U.S. will talk about the nuclear issue will by every standard have been dropped."
2008-07-16 01:00:00
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