The United States and its partners in the P5+1 -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- can rightfully claim progress in Thursday's talks with Iran.

The seven hours worth of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, ended much better than anyone anticipated. Iran pledged to admit International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into its recently disclosed facility in Qom and agreed, in principle, to a proposal under which it ships most of its current stockpile of low-enriched uranium outside the country for further enrichment to power a reactor used for medical research.
What's more, Iran agreed to meet again with the group by the end of the month.
And if all of that wasn't enough, U.S. Undersecretary of State Bill Burns had a rare one-on-one meeting with his counterpart, Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili.
The 45-minute meeting was described as a ""sidebar"" and didn't involve substantial negotiation of the issues, but it was the first genuine indication that Iran is taking President Obama up on his offer of engagement.
Yes, the P5+1, and the United States in particular, should be pleased. But the real winner in Thursday's round of talks is Iran, which has largely neutralized international efforts to impose new sanctions against Tehran.
Iran cleverly revealed its not-so-secret nuclear facility at Qom to the IAEA hours before Obama was to speak to the G-20 industrialized nations, where Iran's nuclear program was featured prominently on the agenda in his meetings with various leaders.
Earlier in the week, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, having softened from the Obama administration's efforts to ""push the reset button"" on its relationship with Iran and its decision to scrap missile defense in Poland and Russia, said he could consider tougher international sanctions if Iran did not comply with international demands.
But after Iran's disclosure, Medvedev suggested that Tehran's offer to open the site to IAEA inspectors could satisfy Moscow, which in turn would satisfy China, which has been just as reluctant as Russia to impose new sanctions.
(Source: CNN)