Sunday, May 16, 2010

Turkey & Brazil seal Iran 'swap deal'?

Reuters/ here

Full details of the agreement were not immediately released by Turkish and Brazilian officials .... Turkey's foreign ministry said a formal announcement might be made on Monday after any final revisions by the Brazilian and Iranian presidents and the Turkish prime minister. "Yes, it has been reached after almost 18 hours of negotiations," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Tehran when asked if there would be an agreement. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew to Tehran to join Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who has been negotiating with Iranian officials in what Western and Russian authorities have said is probably the last chance to avoid new U.N. sanctions against Iran......

"America is angry over the proximity of independent countries like Iran and Brazil...That is why they made a fuss ahead of your (Lula) trip to Iran," state television quoted Khamenei as saying. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Lula's mediation effort would fail..."

POLITICO/ here

"... a Washington Iran expert said the fact that the alleged deal reached was connected to Lula's meeting with the Iranian Supreme Leader, as opposed to with the Iranian president, may be significant. That signals that Khamenei "is endorsing the deal," the National Iranian American Council's Trita Parsi said, adding it may reduce the bouts of Iranian domestic political infighting that have plagued earlier rounds of negotiations that failed to hold up. "That means this is no longer Ahmadinejad's nuclear deal, this is Khamenei's nuclear deal."..."

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