President Obama quietly told Iran, through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can substantiate recent claims that Iran “will never pursue nuclear weapons.”
Erdogan visited Khamenei last week, but a few days prior to that he met with Obama in Seoul, Korea, at which point they discussed Obama’s message to Iran, according to Washington Postcolumnist David Ignatius.U.S. intelligence concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program nearly a decade ago and has to date made no moves to restart it. Still, the U.S. has led a harsh, punitive sanctions regime in large part to satisfy a belligerent Israel who has threatened preventive military strike repeatedly. READ MORE
