When William Bums, a top American diplomat, sits down with five colleagues from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia in Geneva and the eu's Javier Solana on July 19th to hear Iran's response to their latest offer of talks to end its nuclear defiance, it will be a double first. The first time America has fielded so senior an official for direct talks with Iran on nuclear matters (though lower-ranking ones have talked about Iraq, and America is musing about sending a couple of diplomats back to Tehran after an absence of 30 years). And the first time Iran has not simply backed away at such a revolutionary prospect.rnWhether it will lead on to what America and the other five hope-a six-week freeze on further expansion of Iran's uranium-enrichment effort and on further un sanctions, followed by enrichment suspension and negotiations on a clutch of incentives to end the work altogether-is anyone's guess. Iran's fiery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says that the uranium work will go on. So long as America understands that, he says, talks can go ahead on an "equal footing".
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