Iran in secret talks on 'nuclear swap' ...

"... "We think the deal is doable," an official involved in the negotiations said, "but there's still a lot of detail to be worked through." Turkish and Iranian negotiators, diplomatic sources say, have met several times to discuss the contours of the deal, which they hope to bring to the table next month at a meeting with an international consortium called the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.france, Russia and the United States have also been involved in the negotiations, which began after a meeting between Ahmed Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, and Iranian officials in Bahrain earlier this month.... Backed by P5 member China, as well as Brazil, Turkey has long argued against harsher sanctions on Iran, arguing that weakening its economy threatens regional stability. "Turkey does not want to impose itself on the world stage," said Mustafa Kibaroglu, a nuclear expert at Bilkent University in Ankara, "but it has real stakes here. Shallow, hectoring diplomacy is not going to do it. Iran needs an interlocutor it trusts." In the US, opinion is divided on the Turkish-led initiative. Last month, several influential senators called on Barack Obama, the US president, to reject any deal until Iran dismantled its uranium enrichment infrastructure. But Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, recently said Iran could resume enrichment work "at some future date once they have demonstrated that they can do so in a responsible manner". "The basic dilemma," a US diplomat said, "is this: should we pocket our winnings, and ship out whatever low-enriched uranium we can, or hold out for more in the hope sanctions will work?"..."