Trump disputes Iranian claim he offered to remove all sanctions in exchange for talks

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Donald Trump has denied offering to remove all sanctions against Iran in exchange for talks, which Iranian president Hassan Rouhani had claimed following his attendance at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

The Iranian president made the claim upon his arrival in Tehran from New York. Soon after the comments, Mr Trump denied the statement on Twitter.

"Iran wanted me to lift the sanctions imposed on them in order to meet. I said, of course, NO!" Mr Trump tweeted.

The Iranian president had said in Tehran that the offer came during a meeting among several heads of state.

"The German chancellor, the prime minister of England (Britain) and the president of France were in New York and all insisted that this meeting take place. And America says that I will lift the sanctions," Rouhani said. "It was up for debate what sanctions will be lifted and they had said clearly that we will lift all sanctions."

He added: "But this action wasn't in a manner that was acceptable, meaning that in the atmosphere of sanctions and the existence of sanctions and the toxic atmosphere of maximum pressure, even if we want to negotiate with the Americans in the 5+1 framework, no one can predict what the end and result of this negotiation will be."

The United States, during the Trump administration, first re-imposed sanctions on Iran in November of last year, 180 days after the president announced he would pull the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — an agreement also known as the Iran nuclear agreement that was negotiated during the Obama administration.

Mr Trump has, since then, frequently claimed — erroneously — that the JCPOA amounted to a cash giveaway to the country, and that the Iranians did not offer anything in return.

The agreement was negotiated during the Obama administration alongside several US allies, and set up a framework for Iranian nuclear inspections in order to stop the country from developing weapons-grade uranium.

In exchange, the US and other countries lifted sanctions on roughly $1.8 billion in Iranian assets, which Mr Trump has said was a cash giveaway to Iran, including the suggestion that it was shipped to the country in cash. That characterisation of that money is false, however, as the sanctions merely lifted sanctions that prohibited Iran from accessing money that was already owned by Iran.

The suggestion that the US would lift sanctions to engage in talks with Iran followed soon after a different international crisis, when Saudi Arabian oil facilities were bombed using missiles that the US and others say came from Iran.