Iran’s foreign minister suggested in private talks that his country was willing to restore nuclear inspectors’ access to bombed facilities in exchange for sanctions relief, people familiar with the discussions said, a concession that could help break deadlocked peace talks with the US.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi raised the idea in meetings at the United Nations with European and Middle Eastern diplomats while he was in New York for the annual General Assembly, which ended earlier this week, according to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
He gave little away about the state of Iran’s economy as a result of both sanctions and the US naval blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz that has choked off its oil exports. But his suggestion to counterparts that Iran would grant nuclear inspectors access in exchange for sanctions relief signals the extent of the country’s economic pain, according to the diplomats.
Inflation in Iran is now almost 90 percent year over year, and the rial has weakened 30 percent against the dollar as sanctions begin to bite.
Araghchi also pressed Europeans to reverse a UN decision from last year to re-impose broad sanctions on Iran, a particular sore spot for Iran and a step European officials have refused to take, four of the people said. The so-called sanctions “snapback” was set in motion last September.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told CBS’s “Face the Nation” last week that his country was willing to allow inspectors back in. “That is absolutely correct,” he said.
But it wasn’t previously known that Araghchi had brought up the idea during his stay in New York, which lasted several days. President Donald Trump this week denied reports that he was willing to offer sanctions relief and the release of frozen funds to Iran in return for concessions on its nuclear program.
The US has largely stopped its military attacks on Iranian assets, instead relying on the naval blockade. Iran loaded no crude oil onto tankers last month, according to preliminary data based on satellite images. The slump indicates Iran is becoming less willing or able to test the US blockade of its Persian Gulf ports.
Still, while the US is passing more non-Iranian tankers through the Strait, its own domestic gasoline and diesel prices remain high, making matters worse for Trump and Republicans a month ahead of the November midterm elections. Washington has approached several countries about releasing strategic fuel reserves and is looking at multiple options to bring down the price of fuel.
The people familiar with the matter cautioned that Iran has high tolerance for such distress.
The US claimed that Iran had agreed to allow nuclear inspectors to return to the country as part of a June memorandum of understanding that later fell apart. At the time, Iranian officials rejected that claim, and there was no such provision in the text of the deal.
Subsequent US-Iran peace talks have failed to produce a deal, and Iranian officials have come to believe no such agreement is possible before the midterms, Bloomberg reported last week. Iran and the US made little progress during talks in New York.
The MOU was criticized by Democrats and some Republicans as ceding too much to Iran financially, especially in the form of sanctions relief. The US government has told mediators it wants Iran to make firm commitments on reopening the Strait this time around, as well as to make concessions on its nuclear program, Bloomberg previously reported.
Tehran said it made an offer to reopen the Hormuz strait within seven days if the US made certain concessions, but Trump said he had rejected the proposal. Iran’s leaders have previously said the US must lift its naval blockade and remove the sanctions before they allow more ships through the waterway.
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