The United States and its nuclear negotiating allies are seeking to oblige Iran to downsize the number of its centrifuges, a political analyst tells Press TV.
“The United States and its allies – its negotiating partners in the P5+1 – are trying to intimidate Iran and trying to get Iran…to agree to deep cuts in the short term with regard to the number of centrifuges,” Gareth Porter, investigative journalist, said in an interview with Press TV.

He added that the US would actually accept the full number of centrifuges that Iran has been operating for the last few years.
“I think the point of the exercise really is to try to get the Iranians to back off the insistence that in the longer run Iran should be able to and will need to have a much larger number of centrifuges in order to support both the Bushehr reactor and possibly further indigenous reactors that will come online in the future,” the commentator pointed out.
He argued that the US is trying to build some “diplomatic chips” in order to get the Iranians to give concessions on the longer term agreement.

Porter’s comments came as Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US – plus Germany are going to resume the sixth round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Wednesday.

The two sides have been holding talks to iron out their differences and finalize a deal, which would end the standoff over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.

In November 2013, Iran and the six countries signed an interim six-month deal, dubbed the Joint Plan of Action, in the Swiss city of Geneva. The six-month agreement came into force on January 20.

By Press TV

 

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