Iran nuclear program talks end in stalemate

ISTANBUL - Diplomatic efforts to end the 8-year-old impasse over Iran's nuclear program ran aground yesterday after Iranian officials refused to bargain with the United States and other world powers unless they first agreed to conditions, including an immediate halt to economic sanctions.

The standoff, played out over two days inside a picturesque palace on the shores of the Bosphorus, ended with dueling diplomatic statements and deepening pessimism about prospects for solving one of the Obama administration's most vexing security challenges.

There was no discussion of further talks in the near future.

"This is not the conclusion I had hoped for," said Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, after the talks ended shortly past noon. She acknowledged that negotiators never came close to tackling the core issues, such as Iran's uranium enrichment program, because of Iran's insistence on concessions from the West.

"These preconditions are not a way to proceed," Ashton said.

U.S. and European officials said, however, they were encouraged by the cohesion shown by the six countries on the other side of the negotiating table. Those countries - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - have often disagreed on Iran, but the group was in lockstep in their opposition to Iran's proposed conditions, according to U.S. and E.U. officials who participated in the talks.

The group's unanimity could enhance prospects for a broad international agreement on future sanctions or other punitive measures to force concessions from Iran in the future, the officials said.

Negotiations between Iran and the six world powers resumed last month in Geneva after a pause of more than a year. In those talks, Iran agreed to second round of meetings in Istanbul, raising hopes that it might be ready to consider limits on its nuclear program.