Journalism of Courage
The Obama administration,in the wake of a promising first round of nuclear diplomacy with Iran,is weighing a proposal to ease the pain of sanctions on Tehran by offering it access to billions of dollars in frozen funds if the Iranian government takes specific steps to curb its nuclear programme,a senior administration official said Thursday.
Such a plan,under which the United States could free up Irans frozen overseas assets in installments,would avoid the political and diplomatic risks of repealing the sanctions,which had been agreed to by a diverse coalition of countries,the official said. It would also give President Obama the flexibility to respond to Iranian offers that emerge from the negotiations without unraveling the global sanctions regime the administration has spent years cobbling together.
The official likened the plan,which is still being debated inside the White House and the State Department,to opening and closing a financial spigot.
While the two days of talks in Geneva this week did not produce a breakthrough,Iran officials were more candid and substantive than in previous encounters,officials said,particularly in direct negotiations between Iranian diplomats and the senior American representative,Wendy R Sherman.
A spokeswoman for the White House,Bernadette Meehan,early on Friday said it was premature and speculative to discuss types of sanctions relief,adding,Iran will have to agree to meaningful,transparent,and verifiable actions before we can seriously consider taking steps to ease sanctions.
There was no immediate reaction to the idea from Israel,which views an Iran with a nuclear bomb as a threat to its existence. An official in the office of PM Benjamin Netanyahu refused to comment on Friday,saying the reported proposal had not yet been articulated as official American policy.
MARK LANDLER
