US-Iran ties: All eyes set on Nov 24

Since seizure of the American embassy following the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the puppet regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi, relations between Washington and Tehran remains in cold storage, to say the least. Hectic negotiations with the Iranian authority, headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led to release of 52 American diplomats and officials held hostage after 444 days on January 20, 1981. Both the countries cut off diplomatic relations. As of now, no diplomatic relations exit between the two countries.
President Bush had joined P 5+1 (the US, the UK, France, Russia, China +Germany) on condition that the United States would join its EU-3 partners and sit face to face with Teheran's representatives in negotiations in exchange for Iran's verifiable suspension of its uranium and reprocessing activities. During two-term presidency of Bush, there had been no significant progress in signing a deal with the Iranian authority on nuclear programme.
During presidency of Democrat President Barack Obama, talks between Tehran and  P 5+ 1 are progressing well. The US officials do not rule out securing a deal with Tehran.  November 24 is the date fixed to reach final negotiations to strike a deal.
If the final deal is signed, the US would, in particular, have to roll back some of financial, trade and oil sanctions against Iran. Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State, who leads negotiators from the US, is of the view that the world is clearly better off now than it would have been had the leaders on both the sides had ignored this opening. The Obama administration in fact established direct  contacts with Iranians through the good office of the Qatari Ameer. Avenues of contact with Iranian leaders have also been established through courtesy of Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and most senior cleric of Iraq Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
A reported recent letter by President Obama to Ayatollah Ali Khomenei to join with the American forces to fight against rising power of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has caused hue and cry in the US. While disclosing contents of the letter to the Iranian Supreme leader, the Wall Street Journal indicated that the US shares interest in fighting Islamic state militants but stressed that any cooperation on that would be largely contingent on an Iranian agreement to the nuclear deal.
President Obama's handling of nuclear programme of Iran is being viewed by some allies in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a negative vein. So is the leader of Israel.
The present conflict in the Middle East is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Pro-Israeli lobby in the US is also against any deal with Iran. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney criticised President Obama for sending the secret letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei while addressing an Israel-American organisation's first national conference in Washington DC on November 9. Mitt Romney pointed out that in essence, it has given new credibility to the Tehran regime. Romney's remarks go well with the Israeli leadership in Tel Aviv. Somehow or other, leadership in Tel Aviv is reluctant to accept Iranian intent to develop nuclear power for domestic use, but under non-proliferation treaty of the United Nations, Iran has a right to develop nuclear power for domestic use whereas Israel has no right to talk about Iran's intentions. Israel has developed nuclear arsenals but officially did not declare as such nor signed nuclear non-proliferation treaty as yet.
 Hectic negotiations are apparently taking place to finalise a deal with Tehran on the deadline of November 24. Secretary of State John Kerry is pursuing to secure an agreement via third channel, as reported by the Washington Times of November 20. Possibly Oman is working as another mediator with Tehran although it is not a party to the negotiations. The Secretary of State, who is now on a visit in London on way to Vienna, had talks with Foreign Minister of Oman Yusuf bin Alwi but pulse of Tehran could not be disclosed to the media as yet. Oman is another Gulf state that has been maintaining close relations with the Iranian authorities. John Kerry is also likely to meet another adversary of Iran in Paris before proceeding to Vienna. He is Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Saud al-Faisal and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Talks with Fabius is important because last time an interim deal was delayed because of a French objection while the Saudi Foreign Minister would likely to be assured by John Kerry that no such deal would be signed which goes against the interest of Saudi Arabia.
Let our fingers be crossed to see what turns out on November 24 in Vienna on agreement with Iran on peaceful nuclear use.

The writer is a retired diplomat from Bangladesh  amjad.21@gmail.com