The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani have been meeting in recent days to discuss ways to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the West. Tehran recently hinted that it would be willing to freeze its uranium enrichment program for two months in a bid to jumpstart talks with the European Union and the United States.

Iranian journalist Afshin Molavi, a fellow at the New America Foundation, calls Iran's reported offer "significant." Speaking with host Judith Latham of VOA News Now's International Press Club, Mr. Molavi says there is serious debate within Iran about the efficacy of negotiations with the international community. If one examines the history of nuclear negotiations, he observes, the Iranian government has "tended to get a better deal when they have been more defiant." Regarding the controversial US visit of former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, Afshin Molavi, author of The Soul of Iran, says the former president "clearly has differences" with President Ahmadinejad...

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