Kerry to meet Iran FM in highest level talks since 1979

Aamer Madhani and Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iran's foreign minister on Thursday in the highest-level talks between the United States and Tehran since the 1979 revolution, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes confirmed on Monday.

Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will join their counterparts from the six major powers that are negotiating to contain Iran's nuclear policy.

"We welcome Iran engaging seriously through that process given that it represents the international community's commitment to holding Iran accountable, but also being open to a diplomatic resolution," Rhodes said.

The meeting was initially announced by Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief.

Ashton made the announcement after meeting, for the first time, with Zarif on the eve of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"What I saw today is energy and determination to move forward on our talks and many things flow from that," said Ashton, who will convene the group, according to The Guardian.

She also said diplomats and experts from the negotiating group would meet then with an Iranian team next month in Geneva to talk about the details of a possible nuclear compromise.

In a post on his Facebook page, Zarif said Monday that the upcoming meetings in New York herald the start of interactions on problems and issues that will require time to resolve, the semi-official Fars News agency reports.

"The field of foreign policy needs sobriety, patience, wisdom and well-assessed and targeted measures and the pile of problems cannot be expected to be resolved by one or some meetings," Zarif wrote in his Facebook page Monday.

"To reach successful and sustainable solutions, the two sides should be ready for constructive interactions based on equal footing," he added

The planned meeting comes against a backdrop of signals from both sides about the prospects for improved relations.

President Obama, who will address the opening of the General Assembly on Tuesday, and new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, who is also in New York, have exchanged letters in the midst of a long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear policy.

Neither side has ruled out a possible impromptu meeting or exchange between the two leaders.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama "believes there is an opportunity for diplomacy when it comes to the issues that have presented challenges to the United States and our allies with regards to Iran, and we hope that the Iranian government takes advantage of this opportunity."

Rouhani, who denies that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, told NBC News last week that he received a "positive and constructive" letter from Obama after the recent Iranian election, and it could augur "subtle and tiny steps for a very important future."

"We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so. We solely are looking for peaceful nuclear technology," he told NBC News.

In an interview last week with Telemundo, Obama confirmed that he sent a letter to Rouhani "indicating the U.S.'s interest in resolving this nuclear issue, in a way that would allow Iran to rejoin the international community."

Obama added, however, that Iran must "show the international community that it's not trying to weaponize nuclear power."

The Guardian notes that then-secretary of state Colin Powell shook hands with his Iranian counterpart at the General Assembly in 2001, but did not hold any talks at a ministerial level.

Relations between Washington and Tehran were ruptured in 1979 following the toppling of the U.S.-backed Shah and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Young Islamist militants seized the embassy and held 52 U.S. hostages for 444 days.

In a related sign of a possible thaw, Mohammad Khatami, who was Iranian president from 1997 to 2005, writes in an op-ed Monday for The Guardian that an opportunity for resolving differences with the West was missed in 2001, but had once again opened because of what he said was Rouhani's broad support among Iranians and, more important, from Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

"Explicit public support from the supreme leader of the Islamic republic provides Rouhani and his colleagues with the necessary authority for a diplomatic resolution of a number of foreign policy issues with the west, not just the nuclear issue,"

he writes.

He says the election of Rouhani and his "agenda for change" had provided "an unrivaled and possibly unrepeatable opportunity for Iran, the west and all local and regional powers."