US official: We offered Iran ‘free nuclear fuel forever’ but they refused; they wanted enrichment for a nuclear bomb

A senior US official briefing reporters asserts that the Iranians demonstrated “no seriousness to achieve a real deal,” even though Washington offered “free nuclear fuel forever.”

“They basically said that didn’t work for them. And we basically said, ‘Well, that makes absolutely no sense,'” the senior US official recalls, accusing Iran of trying to “buy time,” rather than negotiating in good faith.

“They were in the throes of rebuilding everything that had been destroyed” in the US and Israeli strikes last June, the official also says.

In the last three rounds of talks, Iran adamantly refused to negotiate over its ballistic missile program, the official notes. “They won’t talk about it with us. They won’t talk about it with our regional partners. They will not talk about those missiles at all. And for us, that was also an unacceptable situation to be in. So the president, frankly, had no choice,” the US official says.

“It was very clear that the intent for them was to preserve their ability to do enrichment, so that over time, they could use it for a nuclear bomb,” the official continues. “If they wanted to have a civil, peaceful nuclear program, we offered them many, many ways to do that. But, instead, that was met with games, tricks and stall tactics.”