Iran may hold direct talks with US In what could be a key breakthrough, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian foreign minister, said the permanent five members of the United Nations security council, along with Germany, had agreed to meet in Kazakhstan on February 25. At a security conference in Munich Mr Biden confirmed reports that President Barack Obama was prepared to authorise direct talks. "We have made it clear that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership," he said. That offer stands, but it must be real and tangible, and there has to be an agenda that they're prepared to speak to. He said they would happen "when the Supreme Leader was serious." Mr Salehi said that as far as negotiations with America went, Iran had "no red line." However, he stopped short of saying that Iran would agree to take part. Ayatollah Khamenei has vetoed previous negotiations, but the effect of sanctions is now said to be straining both the economic and political system in the country. Mr Ahmadinejad's attempts to counter their effects by liberalising the economy, including reducing subsidies on staple goods, has been wildly unpopular and led to his condemnation in parliament. On Sunday, his labour minister, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, was voted out of office, but not before Mr Ahmadinejad, in defending him, had played a tape which he said was of Mr Larijani's brother offering financial favours to a disgraced former senior prosecutor.