Obama administration softens demands on Iran

The United States and its partners have softened their demands on Iran after two days of meetings failed to produce a deal on the country's nuclear program, The New York Times reports.

The six parties have abandoned previous demands that Iran shut down a secretive uranium enrichment plant at Fordo that was discovered by Western intelligence agencies in 2009, as long as enrichment is suspended. They also said Iran would be allowed to keep a small amount of enriched uranium, which Iran says it needs for medical research.

The new deal was made after two days of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the six parties – the U.S., China, Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany – met with Iranian negotiators for the first time since June. The parties agreed that technical experts would meet to discuss the proposal next month, the Times reported, while negotiators would gather in Almaty on April 5 and 6.

“Of course, their proposal in Almaty seemed more realistic and it seems that they have come to the conclusion that they should behave more realistically,” Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told reporters, according to the Fars news agency. “They have come closer to the ... proposal presented by Iran, but the issue of cooperation can be helpful and they have reached this conclusion that they should take more realistic steps to come closer to Iran.”

The six-party negotiators weren't as optimistic, according to the Times, with one American official calling the latest talks “useful” but declining to use the word “positive” since an agreement remains elusive. Critics of the talks say the Iranians are just stalling for time, and Israel has vowed to take military action if it feels the country is about to reach the level where it can produce a nuclear weapon.

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