(AP) MOSCOW – Russia launched a desperate bid Tuesday to save nuclear talks between six world powers and Iran from collapse and 놀이터 추천 lessen the chances of a Middle East conflict that could draw in the United States.

Failure to reach an agreement that limits Iran’s nuclear activities would increase the chances that Israel — already skeptical of diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon — could launch an attack, a scenario that potentially could pull in the U.S. and spread chaos throughout the Middle East.

Diplomats said the negotiations remained deadlocked as they went into a second and possibly final day, despite pleas from the presidents of the U.S. and Russia for Iran to agree to curb nuclear activities. Iran says sanctions crippling its oil industry must be lifted before it does anything.

A top Russian official reportedly met twice with Iran’s chief envoy on the sidelines of the talks Tuesday, as the host nation tried to keep negotiations on track. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, conferred with top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, said one of the diplomats.

The diplomat, like others who spoke to reporters, demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the closed talks.

President Barack Obama could suffer at home if talks fail, even if Israel holds back from attack, because a derailed diplomatic track would give Mitt Romney, his Republican rival for office, additional leeway to criticize him for being too soft on Iran.

Diplomats from several nations meeting with Iran in Moscow depict the talks as significant and say they could be the last in a series. If negotiators fail to make headway in persuading Tehran to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment, it’s unclear if — or when — new talks would occur.

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Expectations were restrained after Monday’s meeting ended on a downbeat note, with diplomats saying Iran had toughened its conditions in exchange for considering six-power demands that it stop enriching from low levels to higher purities closer to the consistency needed to arm nuclear missiles.

Tehran insists it is enriching only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes. But it has refused foreign offers of fuel and is stonewalling a U.N. probe into suspicions that it secretly worked on atomic arms — allegations it strenuously denies. It dismisses U.N. and other international sanctions meant to pressure it into stopping enrichment, which can also turn uranium into the core of a nuclear weapon, saying it has a right to do so under international law,

Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin jointly urged Iran to show flexibility at the Moscow talks ahead of Tuesday’s session.

“We agree that Iran must undertake serious efforts aimed at restoring international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program,” they said on the sidelines of the meeting of G-20 nations in Mexico.