New Iran Talks Open in Kazakhstan Amid Talks of US War

Western Officials Promise 'Incentives' for Iran Deal

The latest round of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran begin Tuesday morning in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with considerable indication from the US that these will be the last talks, setting the stage for a summer US war against Iran.

The talks are the first since June of last year, and have been prefaced by Secretary of State John Kerry insisting that time is “running out” for Iran to acquiesce to America’s assorted demands. Other Western nations have talked up an unspecified package of “incentives” for Iran to make a deal.

What this will be remains unclear, though previous indications were that they would grudgingly allow Iran to trade certain goods in gold in return for abandoning a large portion of their civilian nuclear program. Iran has already rejected that offer, insisting that any deal would have to include an end to international threats and an acceptance of Iran’s sovereignty.

The P5+1 have met Iran repeatedly over the program in recent years, with Iran accepting the Fall 2009 US offer for a third party enrichment deal only to have the US withdraw the offer angrily, and condemn Iran for accepting it. Since then, US offers have included more and more demands every meeting, seemingly designed to avoid the embarrassment of having Iran accept a reasonable offer and end the push for war.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.