Iran foreign minister reported to make nuclear offer; U.S. sceptical
ADVERTISEMENTIran on Thursday offered to ratify a document prescribing more intrusive inspections of its nuclear programme if the United States abandoned its economic sanctions, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday, in a proposal that drew US scepticism.
Iran could ratify the "Additional Protocol" that gives UN inspectors more tools to verify its nuclear programme is peaceful immediately if Washington also abandoned the sanctions on Iran, the newspaper quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as telling reporters in New York.
"If [US President Donald] Trump wants more for more, we can ratify the Additional Protocol and he can lift the sanctions he set," Zarif said, according to the report.
However, Iran is already implementing the protocol, so it was not clear that Zarif's offer constituted a concession.
A US official reacted sceptically, saying Iran was seeking to get sanctions relief without offering much in return.
"Their whole game is to try to get any sanctions relief they can while maintaining the ability to get a nuclear weapon in the future," said the US official on condition of anonymity.
The official said Iran was "trying to spin a small action into" something that might appear to be a big concession. The official noted that under the offer, Iran would keep enriching uranium and would do nothing to rein in its support for regional proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The 1993 Additional Protocol increases the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, to verify that nuclear facilities are peaceful through inspections and other means.
Under the nuclear deal that Iran struck with six major powers in 2015 - and that Trump abandoned last year - Iran must also seek ratification of the Additional Protocol eight years after the deal was adopted, at the same time that the United States was obliged to seek permanent termination of many sanctions on Iran.