Much Pleased Mullahs

It looks like there's been a preliminary agreement reached with the mullahs.

Iranian chief negotiator Hassan Rowhani on Thursday said he was pleased with a European Union offer to come up with new, concrete proposals to solve a dispute over Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

The previous day, Iranian officials and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany managed in a last-ditch meeting in Geneva to avert a collapse of talks.

"We liked the idea" proposed by the EU, Rowhani told reporters shortly before leaving Switzerland for Iran.

The European ministers, representing the 25-nation EU, agreed with Iranian negotiators that they would make new proposals to Tehran in late July or August on cooperation in civilian nuclear power and trade ties.

Iran in turn pledged to maintain a suspension of its uranium enrichment programme agreed in Paris last November, amid fears that Tehran's plans would allow it to develop a nuclear bomb.

Unfortunately, I fear that this only delays the inevitable. Are the Iranians going to agree to any new proposals? It's extremely doubtful. They've already rejected a proposal to have a purely research-capable reactor built for them. I'm afraid this is just a stalling tactic on everyone's part.