Putin: Iran Ready to Enter Negotiations

Houston Chronicle:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Iran is ready to enter into negotiations on an offer by the U.N. powers to encourage Tehran to relinquish its nuclear fuel enrichment program.

"The Iranian side responded positively to the six-nation proposal for a way out of the crisis," Putin said after a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. READ MORE

The Russian leader said "Iran is ready to enter negotiations" and that he hoped in the near future that Iran would set a date for the start of talks.

Russia has been Tehran's staunchest backer in the nuclear dispute with the U.S. The Shanghai meeting was the first face-to-face discussion between Putin and Ahmadinejad since the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia agreed last month to offer Iran incentives in return for negotiations conditioned on Iran freezing its uranium enrichment program.

The original breakdown in relations was the result of Iran's restarting of its uranium enrichment programs. Iran has always offered to negotitate but it knew that by restarting its nuclear programs it was ending the negotiations. Now Iran want to Europe to ignore its role in the breakdown in negotiations and blame the West for not negotiating in good faith and Russia is going along with it. Amazing.