The AP reports the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov as saying that Iran is ready to stop its twenty-percent enrichment of uranium.
However, Lavrov was vague about his sources and what his claim goes against what President-elect Rowhani said shortly after his election.
If true, that’s a major concession, and the first hopeful sign in the Iran v. the World nuclear stalemate in a long, long time.
Fingers crossed, although I’d suspect the UN negotiators and inspectors have been in a “show me the money” mode for a long time, too.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Lavrov’s sources prove legitimate. If so, it’s also interesting to note that the story broke through Russia. Two undemocratic governments with common cause in Syria doing their best to legitimize each other?
None of the other news services seem to have broken the story yet.
Here’s the BBC’s “Iran country profile.”
Update #1: here’s an AP article describing a meeting between the incoming Rowhani and the outgoing Amdinejad. Sure wish the Islamic Republic would end the house arrests of Mir Hosein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, mentioned at the end of the article.
Update #2: Iran has something else to celebrate–something truly important–their national soccer team beat South Korea on Tuesday, and they’re going to the 2014 World Cup.