According to this report published yesterday by Switzerland’s Le Temps newspaper, for the past six years, American, European and Iranian researchers have been meeting in secret in Geneva. The objective: to establish informal bridges to avoid “the worst.” The report, according to Le Temps, contains information apparently intended by Iranians who have taken part in the talks, to “influence the Iranian presidential elections” in June.
For Le Temps, Stephane Bussard writes in part:
“Will informal diplomacy allow Iranians and Americans to reconcile, 30 years after the severance of diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran? For six years, academics from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, but also from Europe, Switzerland, the Arab states and even Israel, have ignored the embargoes to meet regularly in Europe. Several meetings, which included an average of thirty participants, have taken place in Geneva. The last two were discretely held in another European country. The most recent was held from March 6 to March 8.”
“The informal diplomacy of Track II is not disconnected from the official policies of Washington and Teheran. It is pursued with support in high places. At the last meeting held in March, a close friend of the Iranian government was present as well as an ambassador from another country. This dialogue seems to have had the approval of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council and its chairman, [former Iran President] Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The leaks Le Temps has reported seem to be an attempt to influence the campaign leading up to the Iranian presidential election on June 12.”
By Stéphane Bussard
Translated By Elise Nussbaum
April 8, 2009
Switzerland – Le Temps – Original Article (French)
For the past six years, American, European and Iranian researchers have been meeting in secret. All but two of the meetings took place in Geneva. The objective: to establish informal bridges to avoid the worst. This process, called “Track II,” revealed today by ‘Le Temps’, was inspired by the Oslo Accords.
Will informal diplomacy allow Iranians and Americans to reconcile, 30 years after the severance of diplomatic relations between Washington and Teheran? For six years, academics from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, but also from Europe, Switzerland, the Arab states and even Israel have ignored the embargoes to meet regularly in Europe. Several meetings, which included an average of thirty participants, have taken place in Geneva. The last two were discretely held in another European country. The most recent was held from March 6 to March 8.
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