US, Iran officials meet to achieve hopeful progress on nuclear file

Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif late Thursday held a rare meeting, the first between American and Iranian officials in decades, and expressed hope, though with caution, that the "new tone and spirit" will lead to positive results regarding the Iranian controversial nuclear file. The brief meeting came after the Foreign Ministers of the Security Council's permanent members, including Kerry, plus Germany, met with Zarif to discuss the Iranian controversial nuclear file. They all agreed that words will now have to be translated into deeds. Addressing reporters after the "constructive" meeting, Kerry said Zarif gave the group a presentation which was "very different in tone, and very different in the vision" that he held out with respect to the possibilities for the future. He said he also met with Zarif bilaterally to "explore a little further the possibilities of how to proceed." He said both officials agreed to continue the process and find a way to answer the questions that people have about Iran's nuclear programme. However, Kerry was quick to add that "one meeting and a change in tone, which is welcome, does not answer those questions yet. There is a lot of work to be done. We will engage in that work, obviously, and we hope very, very much that we can get concrete results that will answer the outstanding questions." He said Zarif put "some possibilities" on the table on how to move forward. Now it is up to the people to do the hard work and try to fill out what those possibilities could do. Representatives of the P5 plus Germany are scheduled to meet their Iranian counterpart next month in Geneva for further nuclear talks. Later Zarif also told reporters that he had a "very constructive initial... business like" meeting with the Council's key members. "We hope to be able to make progress towards resolving this issue in a timely fashion, based on the right of the Iranian people to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," and allay their concerns. On his bilateral meeting with Kerry, he said "we stressed the need to continue these discussions, to give it the political impetus that it requires, and hopefully to reach a conclusion within a reasonable time. I am satisfied with this first step. Now, we have to see if we can match our positive words with serious deeds so that we can move forward." British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters that "the tone and spirit of (today's) the meeting have been very good and indeed a big improvement on the tone and spirit of previous meetings on this issue." He added that the group "established good working relations" with Zarif during this week while they are all attending the general debate of the General Assembly's 68th session