Iran denies nuclear talks took place in mediator meetings
The denial lands hours after Tehran floated opening its nuclear sites to inspectors in exchange for eased sanctions.
Published
Iran's official news agency IRNA says no talks about Iran's nuclear programme took place during recent meetings with mediators, citing a source with knowledge of the discussions.
The denial comes just hours after Iran offered to allow nuclear inspectors into the country if sanctions against it are eased, a sequencing demand it has repeated through months of stalled talks with Washington. Qatar had floated a new proposal aimed at breaking the US-Iran deadlock after Iran's own deadline for a US reply passed without an answer.
The pattern is not new. Iran's foreign minister Araghchi has briefed the president on a US proposal, according to IRNA, and separately told the cabinet that Washington had sent one, according to a government spokesperson. Qatari mediators have also floated linking Iran's naval blockade demand to US nuclear concessions, an effort that stalled after President Trump denied offering Tehran anything. Iran has repeatedly said it will not compromise on its nuclear rights even as mediators reported progress on a Hormuz-for-blockade swap. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump told aides privately he expects to resume bombing Iran by the end of November.
Today's denial cuts directly against the inspections-for-sanctions offer floated earlier in the day, reinforcing a pattern seen throughout the standoff in which one side's optimistic framing gets walked back within hours. It restates Tehran's position that the nuclear file remains secondary to Hormuz and blockade terms rather than something being actively negotiated through Qatar. With this cycle of proposal, denial and contradiction having repeated for weeks without a signed agreement, the mediated track is left exactly where it has sat, neither advancing nor collapsing.