WASHINGTON – World powers decided to lay the groundwork for another round of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a senior US official said, but they want a significantly improved offer Tehran. Neither the US nor any of its international partners was ready to abandon diplomacy in favor of military or other actions, as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has advocated. The new hope for a negotiated end to Iran's decade-long nuclear standoff came Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — powers that have sought, over several rounds of talks, to persuade Iran to halt its production of material that could be used in nuclear weapons. All such efforts have failed so far. The latest stab at a diplomatic compromise collapsed this summer after Iran proposed to stop producing higher-enriched uranium in exchange for a suspension in international sanctions, which Clinton has termed a “nonstarter.” The US official said Iran would have to bring a much better offer to the table this time, but stressed that nations were seeing some signs for optimism and that diplomacy remained “the preferred way to deal with this issue.” Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, who has been spearheading the international diplomacy with Iran, was instructed to reach out to Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Still, no date was set for the possible resumption of the so-called P5+1 talks with Iran, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to comment publicly about the closed-doors meeting at the United Nations. Neither US presidential candidate, however, advocates clearly for military action. An attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would surely prompt retaliation. Iran could seek to disrupt fuel supplies from the Arabian Gulf, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil flows, or it could support proxies such as Hezbollah to attack Israel or US allies in the Gulf. A worst-case scenario might see the US dragged into another major war in the Muslim world at a time of staggering American debt and continued economic struggles. – AP
