The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday said that it will present a counter-proposal to the US’s offer on a potential nuclear deal.
“The US proposal is not acceptable to us. It was not the result of previous rounds of negotiations. We will present our own proposal to the other side via Oman after it is finalized. This proposal is reasonable, logical, and balanced,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.
The US and Iran have been at odds over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, which President Trump and other US officials have demanded must be eliminated altogether, a condition that’s a non-starter for Tehran.
According to media reports, the US’s proposal would allow Iranian uranium enrichment at a low level for only an interim period while separate nuclear facilities involving other countries are established. Some reports say the offer didn’t specify where the new nuclear facilities would be, and that Iran could be open to a nuclear consortium on its own soil, but there has been conflicting information.
Iranian officials say another major problem with the US proposal was that it didn’t offer details on sanctions relief. “We must ensure before the lifting of sanctions that Iran will effectively benefit economically and that its banking and trade relations with other countries will return to normal,” Baghaei said.
Baghaei also discussed Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program and called for international pressure on Israel to disarm. He said that secret Israeli documents Iran claims it has obtained will show “that parties constantly questioning Iran’s peaceful nuclear program actively work to strengthen Israel’s military nuclear program.”
To date, the US and Iran have held five rounds of nuclear talks, and it remains unclear when the sixth will take place. President Trump has been conducting the negotiations under the threat that if they fail, he will bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, even though his intelligence agencies have said there’s no evidence Tehran is working toward a bomb.
