Irans Grand BargainLast month, Iran demonstrated that it has already enriched uranium sufficiently to produce nuclear fuel, so the further enrichment to weapons-grade uranium is now simply a matter of time.
by Martin Walker
Lisbon, Portugal, (UPI) May 09, 2006 -- History is full of might-have-beens, but the attempt in April 2003 by the government of Iran to negotiate a 'grand bargain' with the Bush administration may just have some life left in it.
The bargain, as spelled out by the Iranians, offered to accept a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, to rein in Iranian support for what the United States considered terrorist groups, cooperation with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and against al-Qaida, and to join a comprehensive security agreement with the countries of the Persian Gulf. This would include an agreement to exclude nuclear weapons, which in effect suggested that Iran was prepared to suspend its nuclear program.
In return, Iran wanted full diplomatic recognition from the United States, along with a suspension of U.S. sanctions and an agreement to drop plans for regime change and support for groups opposed to the Iranian regime.
One of the central Iranian concerns was the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil and gas industries, which had left them with obsolete drilling and extraction and refining technologies. This had cut their potential output to some 2 million barrels a day, when it could be producing 6 million barrels or more, and Iran was prepared, as part of the grand bargain, to bring in U.S. oil corporations as partners.
full article:
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Irans_Grand_Bargain.html
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