P5+1 + Iran Nuclear = Failure?
By Dan Raviv
They’re called the P5+1 talks: the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain) plus Germany — on one side of the bargaining table — and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other side.
These are nuclear negotiations, and this year they’ve taken place in Istanbul, in Baghdad, and this week in Moscow. But there’s no apparent progress.
Jennifer Rubin, in her Washington Post blog “Right Turn,” gives the conservative point of view — basically adding up to what Barack Obama’s critics are calling the failure of his attempts to reach out to Iran with diplomacy and possible compromises.
Some White House officials — and former Obama adviser on Iran, Dennis Ross — suggest that reaching out to attempt “engagement” was, in large part, so that the United States could legitimately declare that it tried “everything.” Military action against Iran, if it comes to that, could hardly be countenanced without showing that peaceful solutions were fully explored.
In Jerusalem, Israeli officials have made clear all year that they never expected a breakthrough at the P5+1 talks. Frankly, many of them feared compromise offers that might allow Iran to keep a significant amount of highly enriched uranium.
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