Including more than 28 separate meetings with American officials of ambassadorial rank
(Direct U.S.-Iran meetings are listed in bold)
November 2001 through December 2002 — More than sixteen meetings were held in Geneva and Paris (at least one every month except January 2002) between Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ryan Crocker, (who was also serving as the interim envoy to Afghanistan) and senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials.
November-December 2001 — Special Afghanistan Envoy James Dobbins negotiated with Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Bonn, leading to the Bonn Agreement on Afghanistan.
January 21-22, 2002 — Special Afghanistan Envoy James Dobbins discussed the Karina-A incident with a senior Iranian diplomat at the Tokyo donors conference for Afghanistan.
March 30, 2002 — Special Afghanistan Envoy James Dobbins discussed the future of the Afghan National Army with an Iranian general, in full uniform, who had been the commander of their security assistance efforts for the Northern Alliance throughout the war.
January 2003 — Acting U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (and NSC Senior Director) Zalmay Khalilzad and Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (soon to become UN ambassador) assume control over the negotiations; they meet in Paris.
March 16, 2003 — Khalilzad and Crocker hold second meeting with Zarif in Geneva.
March 21, 2003 — Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi denied that Zarif and Khalilzad met.
April 2003 — Khalilzad and Crocker hold third meeting with Zarif in Geneva.
May 3, 2003 — Khalilzad and Crocker hold fourth meeting with Zarif in Geneva.
May 4, 2003 — Tim Guldimann, the Swiss Ambassador to Iran, faxes to the State Department what he depicts as an Iranian “Roadmap” for a comprehensive settlement of issues with the U.S. (called by some a “Grand Bargain”).
October 21, 2003 — Acting on the basis of an understanding with the United States, German Foreign Joschka Fischer, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin met with top Iranian officials in Teheran.
November 17, 2003 — Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “I think that my three colleagues, the EU Three, played a very, very helpful role in going to Tehran…and coming back with a very, very positive and productive result.”
December 2003 — Further talks between Iran and the European Union.
November 15, 2004 — agreement signed by the Governments of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Paris.
November 24, 2004 — Secretary of State Colin Powell said “The United States has been supportive of the Europeans’ efforts.”
December 13, 2004 — Expanded talks between Iran and EU begin, with American support.
January 7, 2005 — Talks between Russia and Iran on the Moscow proposal end without a result with the parties promising to resume talks in February.
January 2005 — Europe and Iran begin trade talks.
March 11, 2005 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the United States will “make an effort to actively support the EU-3’s negotiations with the Iranians” and lift a decade-long block on Iran’s membership of the World Trade Organization, and end objections to Tehran obtaining parts for commercial planes.
January 12, 2006 — EU3 call off nuclear talks with Iran and say Tehran should be referred to UN Security Council.
May 31, 2006 — In a major policy shift, Secretary Rice says the U.S. is willing to join the multilateral talks with Iran if Tehran verifiably suspends its nuclear enrichment program. The U.S. also gives assent to a package of carrots and sticks Solana will describe to the Iranians.
May 31, 2006 — U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was instructed to deliver a message to Iranian UN ambassador that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was willing to meet with Iranian officials if the government suspended uranium enrichment. Bolton said he called Iran’s ambassador, Javad Zarif to set up a meeting, but Zarif told him he was instructed by Iran not to meet. Bolton’s chief of staff donned sunglasses and a trench coat and dropped off a letter at the mission so each side could say they fulfilled their duties. attempted to deliver a letter.
June 5-6, 2006 — On behalf of the five permanent members of the Security Council, Javier Solana flew to Tehran to convey to Iran a package of incentives if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment, and specific actions that might be taken if Iran does not accept the package.
July 11, 2006 — A meeting between Ali Larijani, Javier Solana and the foreign ministers of the P5 plus Germany in Brussels ended with no result.
September 9, 2006 — Contacts between Javier Solana and Ali Larijani resumed.
October 4, 2006 — EU foreign policy chief Solana says four months of intensive talks have brought no agreement on suspension of Iran’s sensitive nuclear activities, and he adds that the dialogue cannot continue indefinitely.
February 9, 2007 — Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani meets with IAEA Chief Mohammad El Baradei.
March 8, 2007 — Rice’s Senior Adviser on Iraq, David Satterfield, affirms U.S. interest in discussions with Iran about the situation in Iraq.
March 10, 2007 — The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, holds a meeting with an Iranian team at a conference of Iraq’s neighbors in Baghdad.
April 25, 2007 — EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and Iran’s top negotiator Ali Larijani held talks in Ankara.
May 28, 2007 — The US Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and Iranian Ambassdor to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi meet in Baghdad.
May 31, 2007 — The EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani in Spain.
June 22, 2007 — Ali Larjani and Javier Solana met again in Geneva.
July 24, 2007 — The US Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi, held a second round of talks in Baghdad.
August 6, 2007 — The US Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi held a third round of talks in Baghdad.
August 20-21, 2007 — extensive talks in Tehran between Iran and the UN’s nuclear agency.
October 7, 2007 — The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, accused Iran’s ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qomi of belonging to the Quds force, which he accused of “lethal involvement and activities” in Iraq, “providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations” against U.S. and Iraqi forces.
October 16, 2007 — Russian President Vladimir Putin met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad at a summit meeting of five Caspian Sea nations in Iran.
October 23, 2007 — Solana and the new Iranian nuclear negotiator met in Rome.
November 20, 2007 — The U.S. and Iran agree to fourth round of Crocker/Qomi talks.
November 30, 2007 — Iran’s new chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili met with Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, in London.
January 11-12, 2008 — ElBaradei visited Iran and met Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
January 27, 2008 — U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad attends multilateral meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Mojtaba Samare Hashemi, a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Davos, Switzerland. State Department says it was “unauthorized.”
May 7, 2008 — Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said there was no point in having talks with Washington as long as US forces continued attacking Shiite militias in Baghdad and therefore a fourth round of talks between the United States and Iran over the security situation in Iraq is unlikely to go ahead.
June 14, 2008 — Javier Solana, travelled to Iran with representatives from the E3 (France, Germany and the UK) and from China and Russia to present Iran a new offer for negotiations.
July 19, 2008 — Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns accompanied Solana and representatives of the E3+3 to meet with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva.
