Iran seemed inflexible in the recent nuclear talks with the P5+1, the last of which was held in Almaty on April 5-6.  But Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri said last week that Tehran offered multiple options to make the two rounds of talks in Almaty a success including an earlier one held in February.

Bagheri added Iran was concerned the talks will reach a stalemate. He compared Almaty with failed negotiations between Iran and Britain, France and Germany in 2003-2005. Back then, led by reformist President Mohammad Khatami, Iran was willing to make a concession over its nuclear program which its hard-liners rejected. The result: the rise of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who refused to halt the country’s nuclear enrichment program.

Bagheri talks between the lines by comparing the previous failed talks with the current talks, hoping that the Americans who are key actors of the group of Western countries in the P5+1 will listen.

What he means is regardless of who's president in Iran, the country’s nuclear policy will not suddenly shift. The point was reaffirmed Friday by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi who emphasized that negotiations are independent from the results of the June presidential elections in Iran.