The just concluded talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on the Iranian nuclear program produced tangible progress, which let the participants hold positive expectations for the next round of meeting, a Russian expert said Wednesday.

Before the two-day talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- no one expected any positive results from the meeting, said Andrei Baklitsky, an expert at the Russian Center for Policy Studies.

"Only a few weeks ago the sides had difficulties even in coordinating the venue for the talks. In these circumstances, any advance naturally causes positive reaction," he said.

Following the talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that all sides have agreed to hold another Iran-P5+1 meeting in Almaty in April after their nuclear experts meet in Istanbul, Turkey, in March.

Reactions from Iran were also positive.

The six world powers have offered Teheran "carrot" instead of "stick," Baklitsky said.

Although the Sextet has not revealed the essence of their proposals to Iran so far, he believed that the incentives offered for Teheran were obvious.

"The International community could agree to give Iran access to the global gold and oil products markets, to scrap blockade of the Iranian financial institutions, and otherwise soften the sanctions," Baklitsky said. "The negotiators gave Iran time to think over their proposals."

The expert said both sides of the talks have seemingly been building more trust to each other.

"The P5+1 group consists not only of admittedly hostile, from Iran's point of view, Western representatives, but Russian and Chinese negotiators, who are otherwise not," he said. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)