'Progress', but little on the actual nature of such progress. That was the bottom line following two days of talks in Berlin on 27 and 28 September 2006 between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.
Alluding to the package of political and economic incentives that France, Germany, Britain, the US, Russia and China promised to Iran in June in return for a suspension of Tehran’s uranium-enrichment program, Solana said: "We have made some important progress on the elements related to how the potential negotiations can take place."
Larijani said: "We have been able to arrive at some positive conclusions. Today we have discussed modalities, with the aim of coming back to the main negotiations as soon as possible."
However, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on 28 September that his nation would not be deterred from its nuclear ambitions, although he stated that Iran was ready for "fair negotiations".
Speaking to Voice of America, Michael Emerson, policy analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies, underlined that there are divisions within Iran on the issue: "There's really a very important set of divergences between different parts of the political system, from the supreme leader down to people in the government and other important personalities. And I guess the debate within Iran is one of judging what the costs to them are going to be of completely breaking off with the EU negotiators."
