Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran plans to offer a new nuclear proposal during the new round of negotiation with P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- in Geneva on October 15, Iranian Mehr news agency reported citing informed official sources.

However, the report did not unveil any detail about the new proposal.

According to Iranian Tehran Times newspaper, the steps which Tehran is expected to offer in Geneva include allowing the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, greater access to Iran's sites and the ability to call more snap inspections.

U.S. State Secretary John Kerry called on earlier Iran to offer new proposals at the Geneva meeting to show the world that their program is peaceful.

Meanwhile, Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has made an interesting proposal, which was immediately denied by the parliament's public relations department.

Larijani said in an interview to Associated Press that Iran has more enriched uranium than it needs and plans to use that as a bargaining chip at nuclear talks in Geneva next week.

According to him, the surplus uranium would be discussed with Western powers in the context of possibly halting its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, which has been a key concession sought in the negotiations.

However, parliament's public relations department called inaccurate the claims about Iran's surplus of enriched uranium which are attributed to Larijani, calling it false and fundamentally inaccurate.

The international diplomatic bloc negotiating with Tehran, last met with Iran in early April, two months before Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's electoral victory.

The P5+1 group, offered at the time to end sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports and precious metals trade in return for Tehran suspending its production of 20 percent-enriched uranium and ceasing activities at the Qom site, known as Fordo.

The U.S. and European diplomats said Iran's previous government never formally responded to the offer.

On the other hand, Russia and China that back Iran's nuclear program press the U.S. and the European Union to begin lifting sanctions on Tehran in an effort to underpin negotiations with Rouhani's government.

Besides, the U.S. and Iran have intensified direct contacts in recent weeks in a bid to strengthen the diplomacy.

U.S. President Barack Obama and President Rouhani had a telephone conversation during the latter's visit to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly session. This phone conversation was the first direct communication of the U.S. and Iranian officials since Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was deemed as a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations.

The West suspects Tehran's nuclear program may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability, but Iran insists it is purely for peaceful purposes.

Tehran has rejected the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.