US Envoy Says Washington Offered to Sell Iran Uranium for Civilian Program

The United States' ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said Washington had offered to sell Iran uranium for use in its civilian nuclear program, an arrangement he said Iran ultimately refused to accept.

Under the proposal as described by Waltz, uranium needed for civilian nuclear purposes would have been supplied directly by the United States, a structure intended to address international concerns about Iran's own enrichment activities while still allowing it to pursue civilian nuclear energy.

According to Waltz, Iran declined to agree to this arrangement, though the ambassador's comments did not detail the specific reasons Tehran gave for rejecting the offer.

The disclosure adds another element to the broader picture of exchanges between Washington and Tehran over the terms under which Iran's nuclear program might be constrained, a subject that has been central to years of negotiation, sanctions, and confrontation between the two countries.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has previously resisted arrangements it views as infringing on its sovereign right to enrich uranium domestically, a tension that appears consistent with Waltz's account of the rejected US offer.