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Source: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8752.htm
Iranian Officials Reveal: Secret Negotiations with U.S. Began in 2011
(MEMRI) A. Savyon, Y. Carmon, and Y. Mansharof - It is evident from statements by top Iranian officials that the U.S. began secret negotiations with Iran in 2011, during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a June 23, 2015, speech, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said: "The issue of negotiating with the Americans is connected to the term of the previous [Ahmadinejad] government, and to the dispatching of a mediator to Tehran to request talks....[Omani Sultan Qaboos] came to visit me as a mediator, and said explicitly that the American president [Obama] had asked him to come to Tehran and present the Americans' request for negotiations. The Americans told this mediator: 'We want to solve the nuclear issue and lift sanctions within six months, while recognizing Iran as a nuclear power.'" In an April 19, 2014, interview, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Ali Akbar Salehi, who served as foreign minister under Ahmadinejad, told Iran's Al-'Alam TV: "Work on the talks with America began two and a half years ago [during 2011], after obtaining the leader's approval."