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Reza Marashi, Research Director for the National Iranian American Council, discusses the failed P5+1 Iran talks in Moscow; why there was a diplomatic breakdown and unwillingness to compromise, even though Obama seems eager to avoid war; how the default US position – that Iran is building a nuclear weapons program – dooms negotiations to failure; and the root cause of conflict (the US wants Middle East client states, while Iran removed the imperial yoke in 1979 and isn’t going back to it).

MP3 here. (19:45)

Reza Marashi joined NIAC in 2010 as the organization’s first Research Director. He came to NIAC after four years in the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to his tenure at the State Department, he was an analyst at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) covering China-Middle East issues, and a Tehran-based private strategic consultant on Iranian political and economic risk. Marashi is frequently consulted by Western governments on Iran-related matters. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Tehran Bureau, the Huffington Post, Salon, Asharq Alawsat, the Daily Caller, and the Cairo Review of Global Affairs. He has been a guest contributor to the BBC, NPR, Financial Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, ABC News, CBC News, Macleans, Fox News, The Daily Star and The National.