Western powers and Iran may come closer, experts believe

On Tuesday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the UN General Assembly. On the verge of this event, Vestnik Kavkaza dicussed the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear crisis with Director of the Middlea East and Caucasus research centre Stanislaw Tarasov and political analyst Andrey Epifantsev.

Rouhani's visit has already raised great hopes, Tarasov believes. "Americans have shown that they are ready to have contacts with the Iranian leadership. The signals sent from Tehran so far also seem promising," he says.

The expert believes that the next round of Iran's talks with teh 5+1 group (the USA, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) will be used to find a compromise solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.

"I believe the culmination of the tensions has passed," he says.

His approach is shared by Andrey Epifantsev. "One thing has become clear, that after the election of the Iranian President, the Iranian leadership has adopted a policy of greater openness to talks with Tehran's main geopolitical rivals - the U.S., Israel and so on. And a process of negotiations will begin. This is a very good moment to start it, because the previous leadership of both Iran and the United States had a certain burden of accumulated problems and old positioan, which did not allow either side to hold constructive talks. And new people are always a great chance," he says.

“I am certain that the West, the US, the UK, Israel, they will gladly start negotiations with Iran if these negotiations allow them to save face and reach by diplomatic means those goals that otherwise they would reach my military action,” the expert says.