News this morning from the always excellent Laura Rozen of Foreign Policy magazine that Iran has announced that it’s willing to open discussions on its nuclear program without preconditions. This may be good news, or maybe not. Rozen quotes Trita Parsi about the prospects:
Parsi said while the Iranian response is in some ways predictable, and that some in Washington may interpret it as “stringing the West along,” his concern is different: What if the Iranians show up to negotiations, and they simply can’t make a decision because of continued post-elections political turmoil? “I don’t think worst case is that they don’t show up,” Parsi said. “They’ll show up. The worst case scenario is that they show up but they are incapable of making any big decisions because of political infighting in Iran.”
The situation in Iran remains the most confusing and compelling in the world right now. Those interested in knowing more should also read this by Robin Wright about the Larijani brothers–conservative opponents of Ahmadinejad who now run two major institutions, the parliament and the judiciary.