AP: Iran nuclear negotiator Larijani resigns. " ... Differences had recently emerged between Larijani and Ahmadinejad. Larijani's absence during Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting last week with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, raised eyebrows in Iranian political circles."

Also worth reading, former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy in Ha'aretz urging Israel to greenlight US-Iran talks: "It may sound counterintuitive, even heretical, but it could just be that Israel is overlooking - or worse, helping to block - what is possibly the best option available for avoiding a nuclear Iran. Direct American-led negotiations are not in play, and Israel is complicit in this omission. [...] Let's call the alternative double-dip diplomacy. The U.S. would offer Iran two negotiating tracks. The first focuses on the priority security concerns of each side: the nuclear file, Iraq, regime security, sanctions. The second would address all issues of mutual concern, region-wide. ... The U.S.-Iranian talks would be direct, not via proxy, and without preconditions. A genuine U.S. offer would most effectively give regime pragmatists a tool to work with and leverage the pressure that has been generated but that, absent diplomacy, leaves nothing constructive to navigate toward. Beyond the nuclear question, a U.S.-Iranian detente may best deliver on Israeli interests across a range of issues."

Posted by Laura at October 20, 2007 06:45 AM