US, Iran meet directly at nuke talks
Fri Oct 2 02:52:23 EST 2009
Thu Oct 1 16:52:23 UTC 2009
GENEVA, Switzerland, Oct 1 AP - The US says senior American and Iranian delegates have met one-on-one on the sidelines of a high-stakes gathering on Tehran's nuclear program.
US spokesman Robert Wood says US Under Secretary of State William Burns met with Saeed Jalili, Tehran's chief negotiator.
Western diplomats said the two discussed issues during a lunch break at Thursday's seven-nation talks in Geneva.
Wood, and two Western diplomats who demanded anonymity for discussing the confidential information, declined to elaborate.
It is the first known direct high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran in years of attempts to persuade Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says the program is peaceful, some western nations fear it could eventually produce nuclear weapons.
