Geneva conference on Iran is set

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (right) in New York Keystone

A top-level conference on Iran’s nuclear programme is to be held in Geneva on October 15-16, it has been confirmed.

The announcement came after a meeting between the United States, its international partners and Iran on Thursday in New York, in which they declared a “window of opportunity” had opened to settle their nuclear standoff.

The meeting of Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany has been hailed as a significant step forward after months of stalled talks.

It was capped by an unexpected one-on-one meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in what was the highest-level direct contact between the United States and Iran in six years.

Part of the two sides’ dispute centres on Iran’s nuclear program, which the United States and its allies suspect is a cover to develop nuclear weapons.

In another sign of building momentum, both sides agreed to fast-track negotiations and to hold a substantive round of talks on October 15-16 in Geneva. Iran, hoping to get relief from punishing international sanctions as fast as possible, said it hoped a resolution could be reached within a year.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said the parties had agreed to “go forward with an ambitious timeframe”. For his part, Kerry said that Zarif had put forward several possibilities, but that there was still work to do.

The meeting had been mooted earlier in the week by Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, who has been attending the UN General Assembly in New York. He said he had been in contact with Zarif and that Switzerland was  a “communication channel” in this “exercise in rapprochement”.

Prestige

In a meeting with journalists on Thursday before flying back to Switzerland, Burkhalter said that the talks in Geneva over Iran – and those on Syria – have brought Switzerland international prestige and had been welcomed at the UN General Assembly.

“It looks as if things are moving forward towards possible political solutions,” Burkhalter said.

In addition to the talks on Iran, there is a peace conference on Syria on the cards, at the end of October or the beginning of November. It depends on whether the parties involved in the talks can come to a compromise and whether the UN Security Council agrees on a resolution for destroying Syrian chemical weapons, the foreign minister said.

Earlier this month, Kerry held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva in which they agreed on a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons.