By The Telegraph

Facing a deepening economic crisis that has sparked domestic unrest, Iranian officials have proposed a nine-step plan that would see the regime suspend the uranium enrichment that most worries the West in a series of stages.




The proposal calls for the United States and the European Union to respond in kind by dismantling their sanctions as each step, starting with the oils blockade that has caused a precipitous fall of the Iranian currency, the rial.




The plan is based on a proposal made to European officials in July and ostensibly addresses the West's chief concerns by promising to suspend some production of medium-enriched uranium.




But the Obama administration says the offer requires so many concessions from the West that it is unworkable. US officials were quoted as saying that the proposed deal was intended to generate headlines but would not actually guarantee that Iran had ceased to be a nuclear threat.




"The way they have structure it, you can move the fuel around and it stays inside the country," one senior official told the New York Times.

"They could restart the programme in a nanosecond. They don't have to answer any questions from the inspectors yet we're supposed to lift sanctions that would take years to reimpose."

According to the offer, allegedly Iran would only "suspend" medium-enriched uranium production at one of its two nuclear production plants at the final step, once all sanctions had been lifted and oil revenues had begun to flow again.

The offer seems to have left the European Union unimpressed as well. In the next 10 days it is expected to widen sanctions by banning Iranian gas imports, which are insignificant in volume but have a symbolic importance.

Although the Iranian offer is being seen as another ruse, officials say it is also a sign that the regime is increasingly concerned after the rial depreciated by more than 40 per cent in the past week.

 

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