Iran denies Bloomberg report: It did not propose the return of nuclear inspectors for sanctions relief

Iran has rejected a Bloomberg report according to which Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had proposed to Western diplomats the return of nuclear inspectors’ access to bombed facilities, in exchange for sanctions relief.

According to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed diplomats familiar with the talks, Araghchi had raised the idea during U.N. meetings with European and Middle Eastern diplomats. But Iran’s Fars agency, citing a source familiar with the matter, called “false” the claim that Araghchi had proposed to the U.S. allowing inspectors into its facilities.

The issue of Iran’s enriched uranium materials, hidden in deep underground tunnels, remains one of the hottest points of the U.S.–Iran conflict, with Washington having made preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon a central aim of the war.