Iran split on nuke talks extension

Iran's media were deeply split Tuesday on the merits of ­extending nuclear talks with the West, with conservative newspapers criticizing the move as reformist outlets said progress had been made.

Vatan-e-Emrooz, a hard-line broadsheet newspaper, headlined its front page "Nothing" - and beneath the fold had only empty white space.

"A year has passed since the Geneva accord. Nuclear negotiations for the removal of sanctions did not reach a result," the newspaper said, announcing the seven-month extension in talks to its readers.

Siasate-e Rooz, another hard-line paper, was similarly pessimistic.

"Americans, despite announcing in their media that they want a deal, in fact do not believe in reaching a nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran and have never taken any steps to achieve this result."

However, President Hassan Rouhani, who on Monday said a nuclear deal with the West would be done despite missing the deadline in Vienna, received support from more moderate newspapers.

"A major change took place in the past 15 months ... the victory of realism, rationality and pragmatism," the reformist Shargh newspaper said.

"These negotiations showed that neither is Iran 'the axis of evil' that the Americans imagined and tried to make the world believe, nor does America have unresolvable conflicts with Iran as many said," it added.

The overall tone was pessimistic, however, with most newspapers taking a skeptical view of the talks extension.

Javan, a newspaper with close links to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, headlined its front-page report, "Seven months of artificial respiration to nuclear diplomacy."

 
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US House and Senate members reacted coolly Monday to an extension of international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, with skeptical lawmakers demanding Congress "tighten the economic vice on Tehran" through new sanctions.

No sooner had the extension been announced in Vienna and US Secretary of State John Kerry implored US lawmakers not to "walk away" from the negotiations by slapping punitive sanctions on Iran, that several lawmakers advocated just that, setting up a potential White House clash with Congress.

"Now more than ever, it's critical that Congress enacts sanctions that give Iran's mullahs no choice but to dismantle their illicit nuclear program," Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who supports new sanctions, said in a statement. Kirk has drawn up tough legislation with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez, a Democrat, that would see sanctions kick in should Iran violate terms of the temporary agreement or future deal.
AFP -  globaltimes.cn
25/11/14