Two days ahead of the Baghdad round of talks between Iran and representatives of the world’s major powers, the US Senate approved new sanctions against Iran aimed at convincing the Islamic Republic to suspend its uranium enrichment, which western powers say is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

The measure was approved unanimously sending a clear signal that the theocracy’s actions to continue on its path of enrichment, one that could in fact endanger world security, would not be tolerated.

This closes all loopholes of a previous bill that was passed and empowers President Obama to impose sanctions on any country or company that enters joint ventures with Iran to develop its oil or uranium resource, or provides technology or resources to help Iran with such development.

It also includes measures against anyone who provides goods that “materially contribute to Iran’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program or its terrorism-related activities.”

This leads us to today, where the West and Iran met in Baghdad for what can be called a final showdown or on a softer tone, a last attempt at negotiating what seems to be an improbable deal given the distance between the parties and their demands.

On the one hand the Islamic regime wants 3 guarantees while the West has one demand, stop enriching Uranium at undisclosed locations hidden from IAEA inspectors.

But what are the 3 guarantees that Iran is adamant about?

First and foremost Iran wants the West to acknowledge its inalienable right to produce nuclear enrichment for peaceful purposes on its soil.  But hold on a second, everyone knows that under the NPT agreement and the rules of the IAEA which Iran is a signatory of it has such rights to develop peaceful nuclear energy so why make it an issue?

Well, this attempt is simply to assure Tehran that it does not have to depend on foreign countries to provide it with key components to nuclear enriched materials, technology and expertise.  This feeling of dependency has always been a sticky point in Iran – West relations.  But it goes beyond that.

For the past 10 years both the IAEA and the international community have been communicating such a right with the condition of full disclosure and transparency.  But Iran has consistently refused such a candid approach and at every opportunity has shown the world that it has pushed further on its enrichment even passing the 20% mark which puts it closer to weapons grade enrichment and readiness.

Second, Iran wants all sanctions lifted, including the one that was just passed by the United States congress.  The sanctions have had a crippling effect on the regime domestically and it feels that such sanctions if sustained would  ultimately lead to paralysis of the economy and therefore could lead to a domestic revolt.  Already unemployment is at 30% (unofficial records), the bazaar has come to a halt and inflation has had its effects on the average Iranian working 2 or even 3 jobs just to make ends meet.

And the last demand that is less spoken of is that the regime in Tehran wants assurances that the West will not engage in “regime change” because it knows full well that under a more democratic political atmosphere the people of Iran will most certainly be in a position to change the power dynamics of the country and therefore bring an end to 33 years of despotic rule.  And by all indications of the 2009 presidential hijack of an election, Iranians are ready for “change”.

So now the question is can will these conditions be met by the West and will the Europeans bow to Iran’s demands in light of the economic pressures in Europe or will they stand on principles and demand Iran change its course.

We will have to wait for the outcome come daybreak but in my view neither side is any closer today than they were when the talks first initiated back in early 2010.