France, Russia and US Deny New Nuke Deal Presented to Iran

Iran's Atomic Energy Agency Chief Ali Akbar Salehi told Iran's al-Alam TV that Tehran has received a new offer from the West for the exchange of most of its low-grade uranium stockpile for more highly enriched uranium.

Salehi was also quoted by Iran's official Fars News Agency as saying Tehran was "in the process of considering," the "new offer", which he said was made by France, Russia and the United States.  He says the alleged offer was a reaction to Iran's decision, last week, to produce its own 20-percent grade uranium.

U.S. French and Russian officials are denying a new proposal has been made to Tehran.

Several analysts say Salehi's remarks about a new proposal may be aimed at showing Iranians their government's strategy is paying off.  Iran missed an international deadline to accept a nuclear deal at the end of last month and has been sending contradictory statements about the issue for weeks.

The editor of Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, Alex Vatanka, pointed out it is often difficult to discern what is happening in Iran, due to contradictory statements from various officials.

"You listen to the statements coming from Tehran and one of the first questions you say to yourself is, where is the consistency in all this, because you do get, very often, contradictory messages coming from the president's office, the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], or people associated with the Supreme Leader, the Atomic Energy Organization, or even the Foreign Minister Manouchehr Muttaqi," said Alex Vatanka.