US Rejects Talk of New Iran Nuclear Talks

Top Official Says Iran Statement a Plot to Make China, Russia Oppose Sanctions

In what seemed like a major turning point in the ongoing dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, top Iranian negotiator Said Jalili said the nation had prepared a new offer to resolve the dispute and was ready to hold talks with world powers about it.

The announcement comes just weeks after Iran announced new nuclear concessions to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Western diplomats reportedly welcomed the move, though at this point the details of the new offer were not publicly available.

The US, which has officially been trying to get Iran to take part in new talks for months, condemned the new offer as meaningless, however, and accused it of being a plot to try to get China and Russia to oppose a new push for sanctions against them.

The US response, coming before it has even seen what the offer entails, seems primarily based on a deal finalized last week with Israel in which they promised to back “crippling sanctions” against Iran in return for a brief pause in Israel approving new construction projects inside the West Bank.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.