US skeptical of Zarif's reported nuclear offer for ending sanctions
Iran on Thursday offered to ratify a document prescribing
more intrusive inspections of its nuclear program if the United States
abandoned its economic sanctions, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday,
in a proposal that drew US skepticism.
Iran could ratify the "Additional Protocol" that
gives UN inspectors more tools to verify its nuclear program 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 skeptically, 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 (IAEA), 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.