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Negotiators from the U.S. and five other world powers arrived late Wednesday morning in Baghdad to build on discussions last month in Istanbul talks that were seen as an icebreaker more than a year after earlier talks collapsed, though no firm decisions were made. Iranian diplomats, who arrived Monday in Baghdad, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hours before the talks were to open. Analyst Hassan Abedini, who is being briefed by Iran's delegation, said Tehran expects the U.S and other world powers to offer some concessions in return for the tentative agreement with the U.N.'s nuclear agency. "Now the ball is in the (world powers') court to reciprocate it," Abedini said Wednesday. He said Iran is demanding "a give-and-take approach," to the negotiations. The Baghdad talks, involving the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany, could offer a test of how much the U.S. and allies are willing to bend from demands for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment and instead concentrate on just stopping the highest-grade production. Iran is sticking to its right to enrich uranium as a signatory of U.N. nuclear treaties. The West and others fear the level of enrichment Iran is doing can be turned quickly into weapons-grade uranium. At the heart of the debate are sanctions the West has placed on Iran to force it to the bargaining table
-- particularly on a European Union decision to cut all crude oil imports from Iran that are set to take effect July 1. The 27-nation EU accounts for just 18 percent of Iran's total oil exports. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate backed proposals for further sanctions on Iran, including requiring companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose any Iran-related business. U.S. and European measures already have targeted Iran's oil exports
-- its chief revenue source -- and effectively blocked the country from international banking networks. Oil fell to a seven-month low near $91 a barrel Wednesday in Asia on hopes of progress in the talks.
[Associated
Press;
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