Doomsday Prediction? Global Nuclear Conflict Likely if Iran Talks Fail, says Iranian TV report

If talks of Iran's, nuclear programme fail, fears are that it could lead to a global nuclear confrontation involving the U.S., Russia and China. With the plausible use of nuclear arsenals, it could lead to an imminent doomsday catastrophe.

Iran's Press TV quoted analyst and senior editor of Executive Intelligence Review, Jeff Steinberg on Wednesday saying, that if the talks fail, international pressure will drive the U.S. to a conflict with Iran.

Driving towards conflict

"If the talks fail, if the agreements being pursued are not successfully carried forward and implemented, then there would be enormous international pressure to drive towards a conflict with Iran before [US President Barack] Obama leaves office and that's a very great danger that no one can underestimate the importance of," Mr Steinberg said.

"The United States could find itself on one side and Russia and China on the other and those are the kinds of conditions that can lead to miscalculation and general roar," Mr Steinberg, quoted by Press TV pointed out.

"So the danger in this situation is that if these talks don't go forward, we could be facing a global conflict in the coming months and years and that's got to be avoided at all costs when you've got countries like the United States, Russia, and China with" their arsenals of "nuclear weapons," he warned.

The warning from Mr Steinberg comes as the Obama administration made it clear to Congress that, imposing new sanctions on Iran could lead to the failure of talks.

Giving diplomacy as chance

With Israel lobbying hard for tougher sanctions against Iran, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry has been stanchly defending the Obama administration's carrot-and-stick approach to the nuclear negotiations.

On Sunday, Secretary Kerry said, even as the U.S. was read to give conciliatory strategy a chance, the country is prepared to use force if necessary, to ensure that the Islamic republic does not develop a nuclear bomb.

"The president has been willing and made it clear that he is prepared to use force with respect to Iran's weapon, and he has deployed the forces and the weapons necessary to achieve that goal if it has to be achieved," Mr. Kerry said during an interview with NBC.

"You need to give diplomacy the chance to exhaust all the remedies available to it if you are ultimately going to exercise your ultimate option, which is the potential use of force," said the secretary of state.

"The world wants to know that it was a last resort, not a first resort."

Uranium Enrichment, Iranian red line

Iran, on the other hand, has said it will not be pressured to relinquish its uranium enrichment programs to get relief from U.S. sanctions. In an address to parliament, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made it clear that Teheran considers uranium enrichment as a "red line" that cannot be crossed.

"Nuclear rights in the international framework, including uranium enrichment, on its soil" are not negotiable, President Rouhani was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"For us, red lines are not crossable."

As peace fails, hardliners run for the goalpost

The failure of P5+1 talks to reach a deal with Iran last week, meanwhile, has only given time and munitions to hardline elements on all sides, to demand tougher positioning on the deal, which last week, looked appreciatively plausible.

Mr Steinberg noted that Israel and Saudi Arabia are "the usual suspects," which are "working hand in hand to try to prevent" an interim nuclear agreement with Iran.

Terming the proposed deal being discussed by world powers on Iranian nuclear programme as "bad and dangerous," Israel stepped up diplomatic efforts to scuttle any strands of compromise with Iran.

With talks of an immediate agreement having failed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly grabbed the opportunity to warn global powers against dealing with Iran.

He spoke to leaders from the U.S., Russian, French, German and British leaders in an attempt to convince them that the deal under discussion in Geneva was a bad deal. Israeli officials are also seeking to lobby with the U.S. Congress in an attempt to block efforts to ease sanctions against Iran.

Israel even went to the unprecedented extent of scrapping plans for a "record" 20,000 Jewish settlement homes in the West Bank, a move seen by experts as an effort to scupper the nuclear deal with Iran.

With international pressure, suddenly veering around on the U.S. to get tough with Iran; the die may be cast, if both sides do not move fast enough towards peace, according to the report.