Yet another round of talks between Iran and concerned nations over Iran's nuclear program has ended in failure. Ten years of negotiations have yielded precious little progress and doubts surrounding Tehran's nuclear ambitions continue to grow.
It is within Iran's power to end this deadlock and to reduce the sanctions that are inflicting great harm on its economy. Only misplaced pride, dangerous domestic political calculations, or perhaps a genuine nuclear weapons development program could account for Iran's tenacity. Experts expect little change until this summer after Iran holds national elections. Delay, however, will only bring closer the time at which other countries will have said they must act to deny Iran a nuclear option.
Multilateral talks between Iran and the "P5-plus-1" (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and Germany) have been going on since 2006 to resolve the nuclear crisis. Iran admits that it has a nuclear program, but insists it is for civilian purposes only.