Iran-US nuclear talks on Friday got off to a “good start,” Iran’s top diplomat said, but analysts believe a breakthrough is unlikely.
Tehran rejected a core US demand to end nuclear enrichment, and both sides appeared to stick to their original positions, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Arab states had to push for the meeting amid disagreements between both parties over the scope: The US wanted to discuss Iran’s support for militant proxies and its crackdown on protesters, whereas Iran insisted on focusing solely on its nuclear program.
The specter of violence, meanwhile, hangs over the negotiations, and whatever the result, Iran’s people are unlikely to win respite, the historian Kim Ghattas wrote in the Financial Times.