Iran offers to allow nuclear inspectors if sanctions on it are eased
The offer repeats a sequencing demand Tehran has made throughout months of stalled talks with Washington over its nuclear program.
Published
Iran has offered to allow nuclear inspectors into the country if sanctions against it are lifted first, keeping the sequencing condition it has held throughout the standoff with Washington.
Foreign minister Araghchi has briefed Iran's president on a US proposal, according to state media IRNA, and told the cabinet that Washington had sent a proposal, according to a government spokesperson. Qatar has floated a new plan seeking concessions from both sides after Iran's own deadline for a US reply passed without an answer.
The mediation effort has been rocky. Qatari mediators previously floated a deal linking Iran's demand to ease a naval blockade to US nuclear concessions, but those talks stalled after Trump denied offering Tehran anything. Separately, proposed terms under a restarted mediation track would let traffic move freely through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US easing its blockade of Iranian ports, even as Iran has said it will not compromise on its nuclear rights.
Trump's posture has hardened in parallel. He has told aides privately he expects to resume bombing Iran by the end of November, according to the Wall Street Journal, and has said publicly that Iran is doing very poorly, adding he is uncertain whether the country will capitulate.
The new offer sits closer to the mediated, Qatar-backed track than to the confrontational rhetoric from Trump and Iran's security establishment that dominated late September, but it adds no operational detail on Hormuz or shipping, the issue Tehran has said now outweighs the nuclear file itself. Given how many earlier proposals and deadlines in this cycle have stalled without a signed deal, this reads as another round of Iran's offer-and-condition pattern rather than a shift in position.