“Tired but hopeful” was the front-page headline of a leading Iranian reformist newspaper, Shargh, on Sunday, one day after intense negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, the so-called P5+1 group, in Geneva failed to reach an agreement. Three days of meetings between the parties over Iran's disputed nuclear programme had apparently almost reached a deal as most of the P5+1 foreign ministers began reaching Geneva on Friday to join the negotiations. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who 48 hours earlier had left Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu furious in Jerusalem when he departed shortly after breakfast for Geneva, then joined the talks. Speculation that a deal would be reached was at fever pitch. The world had been waiting for the Geneva meeting to see if it would put an end to the decade of struggle with Iran and a peace deal would be reached. Iran's foreign minister, Mohamed Javad Zarif, had been cautious from the beginning, warning the media that any disagreement would not be catastrophic, but in the event none was reached. Yet, as a result of the apparently good intentions of the Iranian negotiating team, Iran managed to turn the negotiations in its favour in the search for what it called a “win-win” solution for all sides. Netanyahu also commented that “I hear that the Iranians are walking to Geneva with a smile on their faces, and they have good reason for it.” The second round of the negotiations is scheduled for 20 November, and it may be that an agreement can be reached then. In the meantime, Iran has managed to create a positive mood despite the failure of the first round of talks in Geneva. France has been widely blamed for the failure of the Geneva meeting to reach an accord, and as a result Iran has been making negative comments about French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who apparently vetoed the agreement. “Fabius, you sacrificed the goodwill. Shame on you,” read one of the comments that had been left on the French government's Facebook page after the meeting. France had apparently opposed any deal that would have left Iran with the right to enrich uranium, and Iranian diplomats have been blaming France for the failure of the meeting as a whole. Yet, even if an agreement had been signed there would still have been a six-month timetable for the parties to build trust and for Iran to act more transparently. Few details have been made available to the media, or rather most things have been kept secret, except for a few leaks such as the reason why France had apparently rejected the deal. Apparently, France had asked Iran to halt the construction of its heavy water reactor facility at Arak during the six-month transitional agreement, something that Iran had declined to do. Zarif had proposed keeping the details of the Geneva meeting secret in order to minimise the damage that might have been caused by Iranian hardliners who are against the negotiations. France's attitude has shocked negotiators since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke well of France during his election campaign and he is a personal friend of Jacques Chirac, the former French president. Chirac sent greetings and congratulations to Rouhani when he was elected, and as a gesture of goodwill the French president, Francois Hollande, invited Rouhani to the forthcoming Syria Peace Conference, also to be held in Geneva. Why did France then decide to play the bad cop role in Geneva and reject a deal that had been brokered between the Iranians and Secretary of State John Kerry? Could the change be attributed to Hollande's forthcoming trip to Israel on 17 November? France, Israel's closest ally in Europe, would not have been able simply to accept the Iranian deal when Netanyahu has made it known that he is against it as Hollande is due to visit Israel next week. Iranians had been following the news to hear if the deal was on before going to bed late on Saturday night. Iranian state television had been airing speeches from the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, from 7pm onwards in a sign that he was supportive of the negotiating team in Geneva. “The negotiators are our children, the children of the revolution, and I strongly support them,” Khamenei said. The tone suddenly changed around 10pm local time, when Zarif told journalists about difficulties in the negotiations, suggesting that these would not be solved during this round of talks. But even though the parties failed to capture the golden opportunity to reach a deal during the Geneva talks, these have still ushered in an era of normal communication between Iran and the US delegation. Taboos have been broken, and the two nations can now directly approach each other and address the issues. Iran had not earlier been able to get close to a deal over its nuclear programme because in the previous talks Iran's behaviour and attitude towards the US was unchanged, and all present knew that the US would be calling the shots of any future deal. The ice has now been broken, and politicians at the ministerial level are now communicating easily and some say even in a friendly manner. Iran could reach a deal soon despite the failure of the Geneva talks because the US is willing to do so and the ground is ready for a breakthrough. Iranians went to bed on Saturday night with a smile on their faces when they saw Kerry smiling when talking with Zarif and sitting at the same table. Those smiles were not for nothing, they would have hoped.
