Iranian American Forum, 16 October 2013

Today, pro-engagement pundits praised nuclear negotiations as useful, candid and positive. But Tehran appeasers have always used the same language to praise past failed talks. Just a few examples:

Trita Parsi, The Diplomat,  March1, 2013

For the first time, United States and Iran appear to have begun real negotiations. Though no agreement has been reached yet, the meeting in Kazakhstan this week was a relative success. This time around there was a genuine give-and-take.

Joby Warrick and Jason Rezaian, Washington Post, February 2013

Iran nuclear talks end on upbeat note

Prospects for a nuclear deal with Iran received an unexpected boost Wednesday when negotiators from Tehran and six world powers emerged from talks with a commodity rarely seen in recent Iranian diplomacy: optimism.

But both sides described an improved atmosphere and an apparent softening of bargaining positions, leading a senior Iranian official to hail a possible “turning point” in the decade-long effort to resolve the nuclear crisis.

a senior U.S. official at the Almaty talks said the Iranian team “appeared to listen carefully” to new proposals for ending the nuclear impasse.

Laura Rozen, Back Channel, September 2012

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held a ‘useful and constructive’ four hour dinner meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul Tuesday, at which he stressed Iran’s interest in continuing negotiations, diplomatic sources told Al-Monitor.

Laura Rozen Back Channel, May 2012

The first Iran nuclear talks in over a year, in Istanbul last month, were roundly praised by all parties as constructive and held in a positive atmosphere.
In Baghdad, the Iranians, for the first time, said, “We are ready to discuss with you the proposals put on the table,” the senior European diplomat said. “This has never happened before. In years before, there has been real discussion, but not about the nuclear issue.”

“For me, it’s important that the talks be detailed and substantive,” the senior diplomat said.

The senior diplomat said there has been a notable change in the seriousness of the Iranians’ approach to the talks since a February letter from lead Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to Ashton accepting new nuclear talks. The concise letter — only a few paragraphs long — directly mentions willingness to focus talks on the nuclear issue and avoided past versions’ lengthy diatribes against perceived international double standards. The senior European diplomat, who has worked on Iran for almost the past decade, called it a “breakthrough.”