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US message on enrichment helped open Iran channel

Secret US-Iran diplomatic contacts got underway after US President Barack Obama conveyed a message that the United States would be prepared to accept limited Iran enrichment program in a serious nuclear agreement.
U.S. special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, Robert Einhorn (R) speaks as Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes looks on during a news conference at the Information Resource Center of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul August 2, 2010.   REUTERS/Truth Leem  (SOUTH KOREA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY BUSINESS) - RTR2GZAI
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Vienna — The secret US-Iran diplomatic channel that helped advance the interim nuclear deal last year got underway after a message from US President Barack Obama was conveyed to Iran: The United States would be prepared to accept a limited Iranian domestic enrichment program as part of a nuclear agreement in which Iran would take concrete and verifiable steps to assure the world its nuclear program would remain exclusively peaceful.

“Basically it was to inform Iran that we are prepared to accept a limited enrichment program in the context of an otherwise acceptable deal,” former US-Iran negotiator Robert Einhorn told Al-Monitor in an interview July 13. “It was not a specific quid pro quo.”

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