The Obama administration is preparing to communicate to Iran’s president-elect Hassan Rohani its desire to hold direct negotiations in the coming weeks over Tehran’s nuclear program, senior U.S. officials said. The P5+1 is hoping to schedule a new round of negotiations with Iran by September, U.S. and European officials said.
Despite Rohani’s accommodating rhetoric, Tehran has continued to expand its nuclear program in recent months. Iran has been installing and running more advanced IR-2 centrifuge machines, which are seen as capable of tripling Iran’s production rate of nuclear fuel, drastically reducing the time it would need to break out and produce weapons-grade materials. A senior U.S. official on Friday said Iran’s advance could force Washington to shorten the timeline for when it thinks Iran could produce a bomb.
{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}
