Iran "We have no discussions with the United States. But we're having a phone call with the UN!"

   Yesterday Gawker and The New York Times ran stories claiming that The United States and Iran would finally be having peace talks. Even the illustrious Time cited this in an online article. This is how Gawker told it;

"Iranian officials have insisted that the talks wait until after the presidential election, a senior administration official said, telling their American counterparts that they want to know with whom they would be negotiating.
News of the agreement — a result of intense, secret exchanges between American and Iranian officials that date almost to the beginning of President Obama's term — comes at a critical moment in the presidential contest, just two weeks before Election Day and the weekend before the final debate, which is to focus on national security and foreign policy."

Sound pretty convincing doesn't it?...Sounds like a "Obama administration official" had decided he needed to pump his ego by bullshitting major news outlets.... Because today the Obama administration came out and said "It's not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any other meetings after the American elections." This was from Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman! Meanwhile an Iranian spokesman, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said "We have no discussions with the United States.

Sounds like time to be concerned to me. Especially when you consider that the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius said in a radio interview that Iran will have "the ability to go toward possession of the nuclear weapon by the end of the first half of the next year"

Iran claims to be focused on the existing framework for negotiations with the UN P5+1 group of nations. This is the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.

In The Tehran Times today it was reported that;

"Ali Baqeri, the deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), made the announcement during a speech at the University of Tehran on Monday. 

“Today, they, the office of Ms. (Helga) Schmid contacted me for a telephone conversation with me, and we are scheduled to hold a telephone conversation today or tomorrow,” he stated. 

Baqeri is the deputy of SNSC Secretary Saeed Jalili, who is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, and Helga Schmid is the deputy secretary general for political affairs of the European External Action Service. 

Schmid is regarded as the deputy of European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) in nuclear negotiations with Iran."

The latest round of high-level talks between Iran and the six major powers was held in Moscow on June 18 and 19.

Baqeri claims the only delay in the talks with the UN has been the fact that "We have presented them our proposals, but they have not replied yet.”