Word: solana
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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President Obama and his allies expressed grave concern last week about the site after revelations of its existence, and they made the demand for its inspection a key benchmark of Iran's willingness to cooperate in resolving questions about its nuclear intent. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced that Iran had agreed to inspections at the site "in the next couple of weeks" and hailed the talks as "the start of what we hope will be an intensive process." Further talks are expected to be held later this month...
...then, the meeting appears to have succeeded beyond (diminished) expectations, and Iran's representatives seem to have demonstrated sufficient flexibility to warrant further talks. "Iran has told us that it plans to cooperate fully and immediately with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the new enrichment facility near Qum," Solana said, "and will invite experts from the agency to visit soon - we expect in the next couple of weeks." He also disclosed that the delegates had agreed in principle that Iran would transport some of the low-enriched uranium it had produced to a third country for further enrichment...
...Solana hailed the level of participation by the U.S. at Geneva, which clearly represented a break from the narrow terms on which the Bush Administration had backed the European-led diplomacy. Whereas William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, had been restricted from delivering much more than prepared remarks at the last meeting of this forum in 2008, this time he held what U.S. officials called a "significant conversation" directly with his Iranian counterpart, Jalili, on the sidelines - the highest level of direct conversation between the U.S. and Iran in decades. State Department spokesman Robert Wood described...
...little-noted speech in London on July 11, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana - a key figure in the "Quartet" of the U.S., E.U., U.N. and Russia that is overseeing the peace process - said that if the parties were unable to bring the conflict to an end in the very near future, the international community would have to impose a solution. "The mediator has to set the timetable too," Solana said. "If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table...
...Solana called for a U.N. Security Council resolution outlining in detail the parameters of a two-state solution, fixing borders, prescribing arrangements for sharing Jerusalem, security and the fate of refugees. Of course, Obama is saying nothing of the sort, still hoping to drag the two sides, however reluctantly, to the negotiating table to hash out an agreement. But Solana - who has been involved in trying to do just that for a decade longer than Obama has - may simply have recognized that the U.S. pressure that has been required to get both sides simply to make confidence-building gestures...