Iran nuclear talks end without breakthrough, technical experts to meet on march 18 in Istanbul

World powers and Iran have ended their two-day meeting on the country's nuclear programme in the Kazakh city of Almaty without breakthrough yesterday. The talks have brought together Iran and five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France as well as Germany - known as P5+1.  The two sides agreed that technical experts would meet to discuss the proposal on March 18 and 19 in Istanbul, while the negotiations at this higher political level would resume, again in Almaty, on April 5 and 6. Western negotiators are banking on hopes that easing some sanctions will make Tehran more agreeable to halting production of 20 percent enriched uranium. They also want Iran to suspend enrichment in its underground Fordo nuclear facility, and to ship its stockpile of high-grade uranium out of the country.