US offered to lift curbs for talks: Iran; Trump denies

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Friday that European leaders at a UN summit in the US said Washington was ready to lift sanctions in exchange for talks on a 2015 nuclear deal.

“The German chancellor, the UK prime minister and France’s president were there (in New York). They insisted that this meeting happen, and that America, too, is saying that it will lift the sanctions,” Rouhani said on state television.

“The next issue was over what sanctions will be lifted,” he said.

“They insisted that we will lift all sanctions.”

Some European officials offered to “write it down.. This (lifting of sanctions) will happen”, he said.

Rouhani has long emphasised that US-Iran talks cannot happen until Washington lifts sanctions and ends its policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump said such an offer was never made.

“Iran wanted me to lift the sanctions imposed on them in order to meet. I said, of course, NO!” he tweeted.

Speaking to reporters at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport after returning from the UN General Assembly, Rouhani said the “framework” of the offer “was not acceptable”.

“If we negotiate in the atmosphere of sanctions, the existence of sanctions and the poisonous atmosphere of maximum pressure... no one can predict what the result of these negotiations would be,” he said.

Rouhani also said on Friday that Iran’s abidance by nuclear inspections proves it does not seek to develop atomic weapons despite having scaled back its compliance with a 2015 accord.

“Some were saying this third step, that you want to set up modern centrifuges, means that you are moving towards a nuclear weapon,” said Rouhani on state television.

“We explained that someone who wants a nuclear weapon... limits comprehensive inspections. We have not reduced inspections,” he said.

Iran fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles on September 7 as the latest scaling back of commitments under the crumbling 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The Islamic republic acted on a threat to further abandon its nuclear commitments based on a deadline it set for European powers to act to shield it from US sanctions.

Rouhani, speaking to reporters at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on his return from the UN General Assembly, stressed all Iran’s nuclear activities would continue to be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Tensions have escalated between Iran and the United States since May last year when Trump pulled out of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord and began reimposing sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

The deal’s remaining partners include Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

European partners have repeatedly said they are committed to saving the deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, but their efforts have so far borne little fruit.

Tehran has already hit back twice with countermeasures in response to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

On July 1, Iran said it had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to beyond a 300-kilogramme maximum set by the deal.

A week later, it announced it had exceeded a 3.67-per cent cap on the purity of its uranium stocks.

Separately, Iran’s foreign ministry on Friday condemned new United States sanctions against China and Russia, saying they endanger “international trade security”.

“As the primary victim of economic terrorism, Iran strongly condemns the destabilising act of sanctioning certain Chinese companies,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi in an official statement.

“The actions of (US President Donald) Trump’s economic terrorism team go against international trade security,” he added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the actions against Chinese entities were in response to violations of unilateral US sanctions over buying Iranian oil.

Agencies