said the hype about Iran's peaceful nuclear program was a fabricated issue from beginning, supporting direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington to make a breakthrough in the talks.

One of the reasons of progress in the on-going round of nuclear negotiations has been the face-to-face talks between Iran and US, he told IRNA adding that lack of direct talks was behind the failure of previous negotiations.

Iran's former amassador in Germany said that bilateral agreements between Iran and US will have a determining role in reaching a deal which can pave the way for discussing other issues of contention.

Mousavian, currently a researcher and instructor at Princeton University, also said that a failure in talks can spoil chances for future settlement of remaining differences.

To a question, he said that significance of nuclear negotiatons has shattered international consensus against Iran such as among Europeans, Arabs, Israeli regime and Zionist lobbies.

'In the 35 years, there was a complete consensus against Iran which was shattered by the negotiations,' he added.

Asked on his previous comments that current negotiations cover issues beyond enrichment or number of centrifuges, Mousavian said, 'First, the lack of trust between Iran and US or West goes beyond such issues. Second, Tehran and Washington have decided to initially clear the nuclear issue and then attend to other ones.'

According to the Iranian analyst, the success of nuclear negotiations will pave the way for settlement of regional issues and open the possibility for managment of on-going crises in the region.

He stressed that the negotiating parties are aware of the fact that they need to remove the fabricated nuclear issue prior to discussing other issues.

By IRNA