IS IRAN HOLDING ALL THE ACES? WASHINGTON NOW UNDER PRESSURE TO SUCCUMB TO TEHRAN’S LATEST DIPLOMATIC CONJURING

22-9-2014 5.35AM IST

Medhaj News: Iran is being accused of skullduggery as it approaches a mid November deadline on nuclear talks with the west, by working into the talks a possible collaboration on combating IS militants.

Iran is ready to work with the United States and its allies to stop Islamic State militants, but would like more flexibility on Iran's uranium enrichment program in exchange, senior Iranian officials told Reuters.

The comments from the officials, who asked not to be named, highlight how difficult it may be for the Western powers to keep the nuclear negotiations separate from other regional conflicts. Iran wields influence in the Syrian civil war and on the Iraqi government, which is fighting the advance of Islamic State fighters.

Previously it had shown its patent disdain for Washington's decision to not only exclude Iran from coalition talks (with Arab countries) but also Obama's decision to finally go ahead with his plans to arm moderate opposition groups in Syria – taken as a direct threat to the regime's stability.

Nevertheless, Iran has sent mixed signals about its willingness to cooperate on defeating Islamic State (IS), a hard-line Sunni Islamist group that has seized large swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and is blamed for a wave of sectarian violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publically said recently that he vetoed a U.S. overture to the Islamic Republic to work together on defeating IS, but U.S. officials said there was no such offer. In public, both Washington and Tehran have ruled out cooperating militarily in tackling the IS threat.

But in private it's a different story. Iranian officials have in fact voiced a willingness to work with the United States on IS, though not necessarily on the battlefield. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Iran has a role to play in defeating Islamic State, indicating the U.S. position may also be shifting.

"Iran is a very influential country in the region and can help in the fight against the ISIL (IS) terrorists ... but it is a two-way street. You give something, you take something," said a senior Iranian official on condition of anonymity.

"ISIL is a threat to world security, not our (nuclear) program, which is a peaceful program," the official added.

Tehran rejects Western allegations that it is amassing the capability to produce atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy program.

Another Iranian official echoed the remarks. Both officials said they would like the United States and its Western allies to show flexibility on the number of atomic centrifuges Tehran could keep under any long-term deal that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.

"Both sides can show flexibility that will lead to an acceptable number for everyone," another Iranian official said.

Indeed, its this same 'flexibility' often spoken of by many Middle East experts which might be a win-win for both sides. Dr Lina Khatib is the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told An Nahar English in July when the IS threat first loomed and the Iran-nuclear talks were about to be rescheduled that Iran's role in fighting IS can and should be seen positively and not feared, as was the case in the Israeli press who portrayed Iran using the IS threat as a bargaining chip which the West should not tolerate. On July 2 she said in an interview that she believes it's all about closing a long overdue deficit of mutual respect between Washington and Tehran and scolds Israel for its jaundiced diplomacy. "The key reason for Iran's nuclear enrichment is not a desire to develop a bomb and attack Israel but to be seen as a key political player in the Middle East" she told An Nahar. "When we think of the Iranian nuclear file, we should not see it as a military file but as a political one. If through engagement with the US, Iran gets recognition of its influence in the region, then it would no longer need to go to such measures as nuclear enrichment in order to prove its political weight".

The former co-founding head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University, is upbeat about Iran's involvement in Iraq over a nuclear deal being struck with the West. "The potential for cooperation between the US and Iran regarding the Iraq issue can only help the nuclear negotiations because if Iran and the US can engage in trust building between them, then this can only push Iran further towards accepting compromise as it sees its chances as getting accepted as a key political player by the West increased" she explains.

We'd still like the keep nuclear talks separate, please...

Kerry held bilateral talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York for more than an hour on Sunday, a senior State Department official said. The meeting focused on the need to make progress in this week's nuclear talks and the threat of Islamic State. The official did not provide details on the discussions between Kerry and Zarif, who met for the first time a year ago on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly when Iran and six world powers reopened negotiations with Tehran.

Western officials told Reuters that Iran has not raised this idea in nuclear negotiations with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China that resumed in New York on Friday. Diplomats close to the talks say they are unlikely to settle in New York on a long-term accord that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iranian nuclear work.

The Western officials said it would be difficult for them to even discuss the point in the atomic negotiations as the United States and its allies are determined to keep the nuclear negotiations focused exclusively on atomic issues as the Nov. 24 deadline for a deal nears.

"We are seeing as we get closer to the end of the talks that the Iranians are tempted to bring other dossiers to the table," a senior Western diplomat said.

"They sometimes indicate that if there were to not be a (nuclear) deal, the other dossiers in region would be more complicated," he added. "The six are determined not to bring the other subjects to the nuclear negotiations table."

The New York talks among senior foreign ministry officials from the six powers and Iran are taking place on the sidelines of this week's annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The number of nuclear centrifuges has emerged as the principal sticking point in negotiations, which are expected to continue in New York until at least Sept. 26.

Centrifuges are machines that spin at supersonic speed to increase the ratio of the fissile isotope in uranium. Low-enriched uranium is used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated goal, but can also provide material for bombs if refined much further, which the West fears may be Iran's latent goal.

Iran currently has over 19,000 centrifuges, though only around 10,000 of those are operational. The six powers want Iran to reduce the number of operational centrifuges to the low thousands, to ensure it cannot quickly produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon, should it choose to do so.

But centrifuges are not the only sticking point in the talks. Others include the duration of any nuclear deal, the timetable for ending the sanctions, and the fate of a research reactor that could yield significant quantities of bomb-grade plutonium.

Under a November 2013 interim deal, Iran froze some parts of its atomic program in exchange for limited sanctions relief. That agreement was intended to buy time for negotiations on a comprehensive deal that end the decade-long standoff with Iran and remove the risk of yet another war in the Middle East.