Did Manmohan Singh play part in historic US-Iran thaw?

Talwar, special assistant to the president and National Security Council senior director for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf States, earlier served as a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by then Senator Joe Biden, who is now vice president.

While working for the Senate, Talwar was part of a small group of American academics, congressional officials and retired diplomats who met with Iranian officials during George W. Bush's two terms as president, the Journal said.

Talwar, who joined the Obama-Biden team in 2008, has represented the White House at all of the formal negotiations conducted between Iran and the global P5Ư powers (Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia), since 2009, according to the Journal.

The Nov 24 "initial nuclear agreement" between Iran and the six powers announced Nov 24 freezes key elements of Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief and provides negotiators with a six-month time frame to work toward a comprehensive and lasting accord.

As the six powers have agreed to freeze plans to further reduce Iran's crude oil sales, India, Iran's second largest customer, is expected to be one of the biggest economic benefactors from the interim deal, according to analysts.

Without the sanctions India, China, South Korea and Japan, who have been given waivers by the US, would find it easier to lift the contracted supplies.

India, which has reduced its crude imports from Iran from 12-14 percent to 7.2 percent post sanctions, would also not be under pressure to cut them down further.