Do Iranians negotiate nuclear matters as though they're in the bazaar?

The P5+1 and Iran have been discussing the another round of talks. A date was set for this week, but Iran won’t settle on a venue. For a while, Istanbul seemed to have been agreed on, but last week, Iran wanted to move them to Cairo.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa against nuclear weapons has been a puzzling part of the Iranian nuclear standoff. He and Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast have again emphasized the importance of that fatwa.

When it comes to his views on nuclear weapons and nonproliferation, the Secretary of Defense nominee’s  thoughts are well documented in his 2008 book “America: Our Next Chapter.” Here are some of his opinions.

A new round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program is coming up, perhaps this month. Expectations are guardedly optimistic.

Very little has been said officially about what will be offered. 

Last night (November 3) a report came through, via The Guardian, that Iran was suspending uranium enrichment to 20%, the level that has been upsetting the rest of the world. And then that turned out not to be the case. The Guardian has replaced the earlier report with a denial from Iran.

That seems to be the way the news on Iran goes these days.

A top Israeli nuclear scientist proposes that Israel offer to shut down its Dimona reactor in return for Iran ending nuclear research for military purposes.

Catherine Ashton, chief negotiator for the P5+1, has laid out a clear demand to her Iranian counterpart: agree to stop 20% enrichment, or the negotiations die, as Laura Rozen reads between the lines.

The second part of Iran’s position paper is headed “Reviewing and Assessing the Proposal of 5+1." It also provides some insight into the Iranian point of view.

Now for a more detailed look at Iran's position paper. A few themes emerge: the Iranians want to continue what they are doing now and to have the sanctions lifted. They want the P5+1 to acknowledge their right to enrichment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). They have presented their objectives and what may be the path they envision to those objectives. They would like for the P5+1 to do something similar.

Iran has made its position paper (pdf) available from the talks earlier this week. Some early observations after the jump.

Most of the Iran news is about war: Will sanctions cause war? Will Israel strike Iran? Will Iran close the Strait of Hormuz? But there’s another path forward, and several elements of it are in play: negotiations.