US to accept Iran’s offer for talks

The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve,and from human rights groups that say the US should not legitimise an Iranian government that appears to have manipulated its presidential election in June and crushed protests after the vote.

In advance of Friday’s announcement,senior administration officials said that their offer to negotiate directly with the Iranians,for what could turn into the first substantive talks since the Iranian Revolution in 1979,was,as a senior official had earlier put it,a “bona fide offer”.

But at the same time,officials said their expectations were extremely low. They also said their willingness to proceed was based in part on a recognition that some form of talks had to take place before the US could make a case for imposing far stronger sanctions on Iran.

“We’ll be looking to see if they are willing to engage seriously on these issues,” said a State Department spokesman,Philip J Crowley. “If we have talks,we will plan to bring up the nuclear issue.”

The talks would also include Britain,France,Russia,China and Germany,which in the past have negotiated with Iran without the presence of an American representative,except for one meeting at the end of the administration of George W Bush.

Iran made its offer to meet in a five-page letter delivered to several nations on Wednesday. Titled “Cooperation,Peace and Justice”,it touched on political,social and economic themes,called for reform of the United Nations and a West Asia peace settlement,and for universal nuclear disarmament.

The letter said nothing about Iran’s nuclear programme,and as recently as this week Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed never to halt the fuel production,saying Iran would not relinquish its fundamental rights.

Administration officials were dismissive of the letter,saying that it rehashed past statements and offers. But they said they would consider the offer to meet,and they spent less than 48 hours studying its contents before deciding to tell Iran that the US would join its negotiating partners in talks.