First US-Iran Talks For 30 Years

America is sending its third most senior diplomat to Geneva in the hope of securing a breakthrough in the nuclear crisis with Iran.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and key diplomats from other world powers will meet with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

It amounts to the first talks between the US and Iran in 30 years.

America has insisted it will not negotiate with Iran until the country suspends enrichment of uranium, a process it believes is being developed to produce a nuclear bomb.

Iran will give its official response to a deal put on the table by the West known as "freeze for freeze".

It is offering to freeze attempts to bring further UN sanctions against Iran in return for a freeze by Iran on its enrichment programme.

That would buy time to build trust and after an initial freeze period, perhaps six weeks, proper negotiations could begin.

Western diplomats say they have no idea what Iran's official response will be but Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said he hoped for "good and constructive" talks when he left Tehran on Friday.

He said: "If they enter (negotiations) with a constructive approach and by avoiding previous mistakes, we can definitely have good and constructive negotiations."

Williams Burns will join European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and officials from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China for the meeting.

The UN has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.

Tensions with Iran have intensified, particularly since Tehran tested missiles last week, alarming Israel and pushing up oil prices. Washington responded to the tests by saying it would defend its allies against any possible attacks.

Relations between America and Iran have been at rock bottom since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the Shah, long backed by Washington, was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The US embassy was closed after 52 staff were held hostage for 444 days.

Now there is even talk of sending US diplomats or at least American Iranian officials to be based in Tehran for the first time in 30 years to deal with administrative issues like visa applications.

Furious neo-conservatives within the Bush administration are calling it a U-turn.

Condoleeza Rice may be insisting Mr Burns is purely there to listen but his mere presence erodes the notion of "no negotiations without suspension of enrichment".

3:24am UK, Saturday July 19, 2008
Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
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What do you think of the policy, "no negotiations without suspension of enrichment?"

When is it acceptable for a country to to have nuclear weapons?