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Iran’s red line on enrichment

Forget France and Israel; talks are probably stuck on Iran’s insistence on its right to enrich uranium on its own soil.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton speak during the third day of closed-door nuclear talks at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva November 9, 2013. REUTERS/Jean-Christophe Bott/Pool  (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTX156EI
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Why did the Nov. 7-9 negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the so-called P5+1) on Iran’s disputed nuclear program falter, despite high hopes for an agreement?  

The standard explanation by many journalists and pundits is that the French scuttled it and that they did so at Israel’s behest. Based on this somewhat misleading interpretation, no one but the expressive French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and combative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to be blamed. 

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