Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 18
By Saeed Isayev - Trend: Neither Iran nor P5+1 want to be seen to have caused failure in nuclear negotiations, Senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, James M. Dorsey told Trend.
"This doesn't mean that tough negotiations are still needed to finalize a deal," Dorsey said, commenting on what should be expected from the next Iran-P5+1 talks.
The next round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran is to resume in Geneva on Wednesday. The two sides failed to reach a deal during the previous round held last week.
Recently at the meeting of Iranian nuclear negotiating team and the Majlis National Security, it was stressed that Iran will not close any nuclear sites including Fordo facility and Arak heavy water production plant, and will not halt the enrichment of uranium.
"Iran and the P5+1 have come a long way in the negotiations. Demands for closure of facilities can be accommodated depending on the degree of verification that establishes that those facilities serve peaceful purposes rather than the potential production of nuclear weapons," Dorsey said.
Deputy national security adviser for strategic communication for President Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes recently said that the U.S. is "very close" to a deal with Iran on country's nuclear program, adding that the deal should be based on verification, not trust.
"We do believe that we can achieve ... a first step in an agreement that halts the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, rolls back some of elements of that program, in exchange for some modest relief (from sanctions)," Rhodes said.
James Dorsey said that Iran realizes there will be no deal that is based explicitly on trust and commitment with no real verification.
"They understand that verification is part of the confidence-building process," Dorsey said. "The issue is and will not be verification as a matter of principle but the degree of and the intrusiveness of verification and what Iran gets in return for verification."
"In other words, verification is in Iran's interest on the assumption that it is sincere about its effort to resolve the problem and its commitment to exclusively peaceful uses of nuclear power," the expert noted.
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.
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