Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Saeed Isayev, Umid Niayesh - Trend: The EU should play as an impartial power and permit Iran and the US to achieve a primary agreement on nuclear program issue, Iranian political analyst, author of book on Iran's nuclear program, Mehdi Mahdavi Azad told Trend.
"Tehran understands that in order to resolve the nuclear issue, it has to achieve an agreement with the US," he said. "Tehran knows that the EU has lost the previous efficiency and that the centre of the nuclear negotiations is Washington, not Brussels."
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
Azad said that unlike previously, EU today has different approach to the nuclear issue of Iran.
"The UN secretary council's statements and the US sanctions against Iran, as well as China and Russian accompanying West on some imposed sanctions - all this has led to complicated circumstances which have decreased Europe's flexibility and power on the issue," the expert explained.
He went on to say that there's no unity between the EU members on Iran's nuclear program, as France, for example holds a negative view on it, while Germany' approach is very positive.
"On the other hand, the UK in coordination with the United States have decided to take serious steps on resolving Iran's nuclear issue," Azad said.
Earlier on Nov. 7, Iran and P5+1 group have started the nuclear negotiations in Geneva. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sounded a note of optimism ahead of the talks, saying he thought a deal could be within reach.
The meeting is the second since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August pledging to resolve the nuclear dispute and lift sanctions by engaging with world powers.
Last month's talks in Geneva - held in English for the first time - saw Iran reportedly outline a two-stage process that would resolve the dispute within a year.
World powers are represented at the talks by the so-called P5+1, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany.
The group has held years of talks with Tehran on its uranium enrichment, which Western powers suspect may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly denied this, insisting its nuclear programme is only for generating electricity and for medical purposes.