World powers soften toward Iran

Western officials offered to ease sanctions in return for Iran reducing its uranium enrichment activities. Following talks on Wednesday, Iran's chief negotiator expressed appreciation that the other countries had moved 'closer to our viewpoint'.

By Justyna Pawlak,?Reuters, Fredrik Dahl,?Reuters / February 27, 2013

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, left, poses with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday. Talks on Wednesday ended with an agreement to meet again in the future.

AP Photo/The United Nations, Evan Schneider

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Iran was upbeat on Wednesday after talks with world powers about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again, but Western officials said it had yet to take concrete steps to ease their fears about its atomic ambitions.

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Rapid progress was unlikely with Iran's presidential election, due in June, raising domestic political tensions, diplomats and analysts had said ahead of the Feb. 26-27 meeting in the Kazakh city of?Almaty, the first in eight months.

The?United States,?China,?France,?Russia, Britain and?Germany?offered modest sanctions relief in return for Iran?curbing its most sensitive nuclear work but made clear that they expected no immediate breakthrough.

In an attempt to make their proposals more palatable to Iran, the six powers appeared to have softened previous demands somewhat, for example regarding their requirement that the Islamic state ship out its stockpile of higher-grade uranium.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator?Saeed Jalili?said the powers had tried to "get closer to our viewpoint", which he said was positive.

In?Paris, U.S. Secretary of State?John Kerry?commented that the talks had been "useful" and that a serious engagement by Iran?could lead to a comprehensive deal in a decade-old dispute that has threatened to trigger a new?Middle East?war.

Iran's foreign minister said in?Vienna?he was "very confident" an agreement could be reached and Jalili, the chief negotiator, said he believed the?Almaty?meeting could be a "turning point".

However, one diplomat said Iranian officials at the negotiations appeared to be suggesting that they were opening new avenues, but it was not clear if this was really the case.

Iran expert?Dina Esfandiary?of the?International Institute?for Strategic Studies said: "Everyone is saying Iran?was more positive and portrayed the talks as a win."

"I reckon the reason for that is that they are saving face internally while buying time with the West until after the elections," she said.

The two sides agreed to hold expert-level talks in?Istanbul?on March 18 to discuss the powers' propsals, and return to?Almaty?for political discussions on April 5-6, when Western diplomats made clear they wanted to see a substantive response from Iran.

"Iran knows what it needs to do, the president has made clear his determination to implement his policy that Iran?will not have a nuclear weapon," Kerry said.

A senior U.S. official in?Almaty?said, "What we care about at the end is concrete results."

Israeli warning?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/npB_-eRYtJ8/World-powers-soften-toward-Iran

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