Softer tone from Iran has experts guessing

In Tehran, Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned against “provocative” remarks on the nuclear crisis, although whether he meant remarks like the ones for which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become known is debatable.

Meanwhile, in New York, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, struck a soft tone during a press luncheon at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, and refused to repeat Iran’s usual statement that it would never give up its right to uranium enrichment, although he was asked about it directly four times.

In the diplomatic world of trying to decipher Iran’s intentions, and which factions in its government support which policies, the two signs of softening prompted speculation and, in some circles, were as quickly dismissed. A European diplomat involved in the Iran negotiations said the West was getting “tired of reading tea leaves” when it came to figuring out what Iran’s rulers were trying to say.