By Louis Charbonneau and Justyna Pawlak
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States held out the prospect of quick sanctions relief for Iran on Monday if Tehran moves swiftly to allay concerns about its nuclear program, although both countries said any deal would be complex and take time.
Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - are to hold talks with Iran on its nuclear program in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"No one should expect a breakthrough overnight," a senior U.S. administration official told reporters.
However, the official said Washington was ready to offer Iran rapid relief from economic sanctions it moved quickly to address concerns that the ultimate goal of its nuclear work was to make bombs.
Any potential sanctions relief would be "targeted, proportional to what Iran puts on the table", the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"I'm sure they will disagree about what is proportionate," the official said. "But we are quite clear about what the menu of options are and what will match what."
On the eve of the talks, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the so-called "P5+1" nations in negotiations, had dinner with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said Tehran would put its case on Tuesday.
"We had a good dinner," Zarif told Reuters as he returned to his hotel after the two-hour dinner at the Iranian diplomatic residence in Geneva.
When asked if he had given Ashton details of an Iranian proposal, he responded: "Proposal is for tomorrow." One diplomat said Zarif did not disclose Iran's proposal at the dinner.
In a hint that Washington is seriously considering easing sanctions, the U.S. delegation at the talks includes one of its leading sanctions experts - Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, effectively the State Department's third-ranking diplomat, leads the U.S. delegation.
The European Union's top sanctions official has also joined the bloc's delegation at the talks.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and intended for energy production.
Since 2006, it has rejected U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment and has continued to expand its nuclear fuel program, leading to increasingly harsh sanctions.
This week's meeting follows the June election of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who says he wants to thaw Iran's icy relations with the West to secure the removal of punitive sanctions that have hobbled its oil-based economy.
Foreign ministers from the P5+1 - including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry - met with Zarif on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last month when they announced the plan for this week's meeting.
A day after Kerry met Zarif in New York, President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest level U.S.-Iranian contact since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations since 1980.
CHANGE IN TONE
Rouhani said in New York last month he wanted a deal with the P5+1 within three to six months. Zarif played down expectations that an agreement would be reached this week.
"Tomorrow is the start of a difficult and relatively time-consuming way forward," he said on his Facebook page late on Sunday. "I am hopeful that by Wednesday we can reach agreement on a road map to find a path towards resolution.
"But even with the goodwill of the other side, to reach agreement on details and start implementation will likely require another meeting at ministerial level," he said.
The U.S. official said the Obama administration was encouraged that Rouhani, who avoids the strident anti-Western and anti-Israeli rhetoric of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had a mandate to "pursue a more moderate course".
But Tehran must be put to the test, the official said.
"That is what we will be doing over the coming days," the official said, adding that "no one is naive about the challenges we face about pursuing the diplomatic path."
"We need to see concrete verifiable actions," the official said. "We go into these meetings clear-eyed that we have very, very, very difficult work to do.
"We are going to make judgments based on actions of the Iranian government, not simply its words, although we appreciate the change in its tone," the official said.
Backing up those words, 10 Democratic and Republican U.S. senators said on Monday they were open to suspending the implementation of new U.S. sanctions, but only if Tehran took significant steps to slow its nuclear program.
The U.S. official said Washington had three priorities regarding Iranian assurances: Tehran must take steps on the production of nuclear and related material, ensure transparency of the nuclear program and take steps regarding its stockpile of nuclear material.
In the past, the six powers have demanded, among other things, that Iran halt uranium enrichment, particularly to 20-percent fissile purity, move stockpiles of enriched uranium out of the country and close down the Fordow enrichment plant, buried inside a mountain south of Tehran.
On Sunday, Iran rejected the demand that it send enriched uranium abroad but signaled flexibility on other issues.
Israel, widely assumed to be the Middle East's only state with atomic weapons, has warned the West not to ease sanctions before Tehran has addressed fears about its nuclear ambitions.
An Israeli official said on Saturday that Netanyahu had phoned British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande to tell them sanctions were close to achieving their goal.
(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Geneva and Marcus George in Dubai; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and David Brunnstrom)
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Walmart today announced its plans to expand its same-day grocery delivery service, a part of its “Walmart To Go” offering, to a new market: Denver, Colorado. This move follows the company’s ongoing grocery delivery tests which have been taking place over the last couple of years in San Jose and San Francisco. The Denver area test is currently a closed beta, meaning customers will be allowed to trial the new service on a first-come, first served basis only. For now, they can request access by signing up at Walmart.com/togo. The retailer says it began online grocery delivery in San Jose and San Francisco back in April 2011, where the service is also available to most cities along the peninsula. Customers can choose from tens of thousands of eligible items online, including fresh produce, meat and seafood, dairy, bakery items, and even non-grocery items like health and beauty products, electronics and toys. Shoppers designate a two-hour slot for their delivery, then orders are fulfilled by local Walmart Supercenters and delivered in Walmart To Go trucks. These branded trucks have previously been used in the San Jose and San Francisco areas, and are now coming to the Denver area, too. Denver was already participating in Walmart’s broader efforts in same-day delivery, which began in select markets last fall. Denver in particular gained same-day delivery in November 2012. For background, last October, Walmart announced its intentions to experiment in this area of same-day delivery, which began with tests in Northern Virginia (outside D.C.), Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Jose/San Francisco, initially. Customers in those regions could shop online – though not necessarily for groceries – then have their orders sourced and fulfilled by their local Walmart stores. The company is still experimenting with price points for this service, it seems, as they note that the Denver area delivery fees will be “in the $5 to $10 range.” However, it will run some introductory offers for new participants in order to encourage sign-ups, including some free delivery options, we’re told. Same-day delivery is available for orders placed by 8 AM M.T. in the Denver market, and returns can be handled at the time of delivery, in-store, or by phoning to have a driver return to pick up the item. Though Walmart remains the largest brick-and-mortar retailer worldwide, it has lost ground online to Amazon.com over the years, which threatens its business as more consumers shift their shoppingSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eEJF8he-20E/
