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Why Iran, West Cannot ReachAgreement on Nuclear Talks

Iran is offering a wider framework for continued nuclear negotiations and insists that its right to nuclear enrichment be recognized, writes Mojtaba Mousavi.

Participants from the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany prepare to start talks with Iranian negotiators in Almaty April 5, 2013. World powers will urge Iran on Friday to accept their offer to ease some economic sanctions if it stops its most sensitive nuclear work, in talks aimed at easing tensions that threaten to boil over into war. REUTERS/Ilyas Omarov/Pool (KAZAKHSTAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXY96H
Participants from the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany prepare to start talks with Iranian negotiators in Almaty April 5, 2013. — REUTERS/Ilyas Omarov

Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) met in a new round of nuclear talks April 5-6 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The Iranian negotiation team led by Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, presented a new proposal which was introduced by Ali Baqeri, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as “the start of a new round of cooperation talks between the P5+1 and Iran.”

“These proposals have been regulated within the framework of Iran's overall plan presented in Moscow,” Baqeri told reporters in a press conference after the first plenary session in Almaty.

However, Western diplomats believe that what Iran presented during the first session is not a “clear and concrete response to the E3+3 (P5+1) Almaty-I proposal.”

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