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No early progress in settlement of Iran’s nuclear problem: experts

From the point of view of experts, these talks failed completely as IAEA representatives did not bring anything new to Tehran

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 18 (Itar-Tass) – Certain progress in the settlement of the nuclear problem of Iran and the lifting of some sanctions against it is possible only in the autumn of 2013, participants in round-table discussions in Moscow on Friday said summing up the results of negotiations between the IAEA and the Iranian leadership held in Tehran.

From the point of view of experts, “these talks failed completely as IAEA representatives did not bring anything new to Tehran”. According to the director general of the Centre for Modern Iranian Studies, Rajab Safarov, “it is not Iran that is to blame for the failure of the talks but the IAEA, as this organization has no own political position on that issue”.

“Iran prepared very serious offers for those talks, while IAEA representatives once again put forward such demands that are unacceptable for Iran,” Safarov noted.

According to expert for Iran from the Institute for Oriental Studies Vladimir Sazhin and expert for Middle East from the same institute Boris Dolgov,” the situation in the negotiating process between IAEA and Iran as well as between the countries of the sextet (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and Iran will not change before autumn”.

Participants in round-table discussions explain it by the fact that “the replacement of key persons dealing with that issue is underway in the US administration after the recent election, and the presidential election is due in Iran in June, which may change the atmosphere of negotiations”.

Meanwhile, “the West hopes that Iran will surrender under the pressure of sanctions applied against it, as the economic situation in the country is deteriorating day by day, and social tensions grow,” Dolgov believes.

“The Iranian leadership is seriously concerned now in connection with the applied sanctions and looks for some option to get out of the existing situation with saving face,” Dolgov said. Experts stress that “nobody wants a military solution and in order to avoid it the parties will be engaged till autumn in the search for a compromise”.

Experts agree that the Russian-offered option of a stage-by-state lifting of sanctions imposed against Iran in response to Tehran’s compliance with IAEA demands has the right to life.

Over the past few years Iran has fulfilled some of its commitments to the world community, and has got nothing in exchange. “Sanctions against Iran were only getting tougher. And this complicates the atmosphere of negotiations,” experts said.

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