Arash Aramesh

“Iran did not make any concessions; Negotiations without results” was the January 23 headline of Kayhan, the largest state-run newspaper in Iran with close ties to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Kayhan blasted the P5+1 for “asking for too much” and blamed the West for refusing to accept Iran’s “innovative offer.” According to Kayhan, Iran made “concrete” and “practical” offers to the West but the state-run newspaper did not elaborate on what these offers contained.

Mehr, a semi-official news agency, announced that the Iranian delegation refused to go beyond the established limits of the talks and declined to engage the US in one-on-one talks. According to Mehr, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, an Iranian diplomat present in Istanbul, said that Catherine Ashton, EU’s foreign policy chief, approached the Iranian delegation and asked them, on behalf of the American delegation, to participate in one-on-one talks with their American counterparts.

In addition to refusing to take part in face to face talks with the American negotiating team, Mehr reported that Iran is also against the involvement of the US and France in any sort of future nuclear fuel deal to be reached between Iran and other countries. Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, was quoted by Mehr as saying that it was not necessary for the US or France to be part of fuel talks and asserted, “You [people in the West] ought to ask your officials why they refuse to sit down and negotiate directly about nuclear fuel.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on January 22, a day after the Istanbul talks failed, that his government welcomed “cooperation” but could not accept the terms offered by the P5+1. He added, “Knowing the spirit of the other side, we were certain that this issue will not be resolved in two or three sessions,” implying that Iran looks forward to more talks on the nuclear issue with the West. Later that day, the Iranian president told a group of well-wishers in the northern province of Gilan that “Nuclear Iran will never concede on its principles,” implying that first, Iran is a nuclear power, and second, Iran will not retreat even an inch on fundamental issues, such as enrichment.

According to Fars, a semi-official news agency with intimate ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, negotiations fell apart after Western negotiators were unable to reach a consensus about Iran’s offer. But Fars, like Kayhan, failed to provide any details about this mysterious and grand Iranian offer that seems to have thrown skilled Western negotiators off balance.

Fars blamed Ashton’s negotiating style and quoted an Iranian member of the parliament as saying, “Ashton derailed the talks because of her Zionist mentality and beliefs.” Fars also praised Saeed Jalili, the chief Iranian negotiator, for not giving in an inch to Western demands. Fars claimed that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had told a group of American statesmen that the US was not going to stop until every single centrifuge in Iran stopped spinning. Fars, believing in a grand conspiracy by the West, applauded Jalili for maneuvering around this trap articulated by Rice. Fars did not explain what role the former Secretary of State currently plays in any major foreign policy decision made in the Obama administration.