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After months of increasingly ominous war talk by the United States, Israel and Iran, there are intriguing signs of potential diplomatic progress over Iran’s nuclear program.

Al Monitor Washington correspondent Barbara Slavin cites numerous developments inside and outside Iran that suggest new possibilities for negotiations over Iran's nuclear program--and a general decline in tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

A series of events – both internal and external – have improved the odds for fruitful negotiations when the United States and its U.N. Security Council partners plus Germany – the so-called P5+1 -- sit down with Iran sometime next month after the Iranian New Year.

US President Barack Obama appears to have contained the threat of an Israeli attack...