Western nations are indicating some progress in talks aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  Both the US and EU says the current talks ended on a positive note and each is studying an Iranian proposal.

The talks in Geneva brought Iranian negotiators together with representatives of the “P5+1” - the permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) plus Germany.  Details of the plan from Tehran weren’t made public, and that’s being viewed as a good sign – real negotiations don’t take place in public.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Iran had shown a “level of seriousness and substance that we have not seen before”.

The EU's top foreign policy official Catherine Ashton says the discussions were the “most detailed talks ever” on Iran’s nuclear program.  Tehran insists its nuclear program is only for energy and medical research, and not about weapons.

Further talks will take place on 7 and 8 November.

While would-be peacemakers were at work in Switzerland, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the Golan Heights, technically still a battleground that Israel took from Syria, telling reporters, “I think that it would be a historic mistake to ease up on Iran without it dismantling the nuclear capabilities it is developing.” 

Earlier, he told the Israeli Parliament, “We can’t surrender the option of a preventive strike,” framing his comments around the 1973 Yom Kippur War although the present-day implication couldn’t be clearer. 

Netanyahu has for the last few weeks told anyone who’d listen to be wary of Iran.  His stated fear is that the big powers rush into a hasty compromise that leaves Iran with the capacity to create atomic weapons that would threaten the Israel.