U.S. to Accept Iran’s Proposal to Hold Talks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/world/middleeast/12nuke.html?hp

The Obama administration said Friday that the United States would accept Iran’s offer to meet, fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to hold unconditional talks despite the Iranian government’s insistence that it would not negotiate over the future of its nuclear program.

The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations, for the first time since Mr. Obama took office.

The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve, and from human rights groups that say the United States should not legitimize an Iranian government that appears to have manipulated its presidential election in June and crushed protests after the vote.

In advance of Friday’s announcement, senior administration officials said that their offer to negotiate directly with the Iranians, for what could turn into the first substantive talks since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, was, as a senior official had earlier put it, a “bona-fide offer.”



US says 6 nations accept Iran's offer to talk
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090911/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iran_4

I've been a bit disappointed with Obama, but this is a clear change for the better.