WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had rejected Iran's request for sanctions to be lifted in exchange for a counter-narrative to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said earlier the United States had offered to lift restrictions to facilitate a meeting.

“Iran wanted me to lift sanctions against them for the meeting,” Trump wrote on Twitter. "Of course I said no!"

Earlier, Iran's president said on his official website that the United States had offered to lift all sanctions against Tehran in exchange for talks.

Rouhani returned from the UN General Assembly in New York to Tehran.

He added: «German Chancellor and Prime Minister of Britain and the President of France were in New York, and all insisted on holding this meeting. America says it will lift sanctions. ”

"The sanctions that will be lifted will be debated, and they have clearly said that they will lift all sanctions," Rowhani said.

"But this step has not taken place in an acceptable way, which means that in the climate of sanctions, the continuation of the sanctions and the poisonous atmosphere of the policy of extreme pressure, even if we want to negotiate with the Americans in the framework of 5 + 1, the final outcome of these negotiations cannot be predicted."

On the other hand, the Iranian president stressed that Iran's compliance with inspections linked to its nuclear program proves that it is not seeking to develop atomic weapons, although it has reduced the level of compliance with the 2015 agreement.

Rouhani said on state television that the third step taken by the republic in reducing its compliance with the nuclear deal was to "operate advanced centrifuges, which means it is moving toward a nuclear weapon."

"We explained that anyone who wants to develop a nuclear weapon ... restricts comprehensive inspections," he said. "We did not limit the inspections."

In his statements to reporters at Mehrabad Airport, Rouhani stressed upon his return from the UN General Assembly that the IAEA will continue to monitor all Iran's nuclear activities.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have escalated since May last year when US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of his country from the nuclear deal and began re-imposing sanctions, which was a blow to the Iranian economy.

The European Union has secretly warned Iran that it will have to start pulling out of the nuclear deal in November if Tehran continues to threaten new steps that violate the terms of the deal, the Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.

According to «Arab Net», the newspaper said that the warning to Iran was agreed in advance by the three signatories to the 2015 agreement, namely Britain, France and Germany, and was issued at a meeting last Wednesday.

In the same vein, the three countries held Iran responsible for the attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities. "It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for these attacks," it said in a joint statement. "There is no other explanation."

The European Union told Iran it would formally raise Iranian non-compliance through an international dispute settlement mechanism if the next Iranian move further violated the agreement, the report said.

Iran has reduced its nuclear obligations in three phases, including upgrading and enriching uranium and running modern centrifuges. It also threatened a fourth, more dangerous step on November 7, unless the United States lifted economic sanctions.

"The difficulty is that Iran says these steps are reversible, but if they build a nuclear bomb, that is irreversible," one source was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

According to the paper, once the agreements' dispute settlement mechanism has been activated, the parties have 30 days to prove non-compliance and, if necessary, there will be swift sanctions at an international level.

The EU warning came after French President Emmanuel Macron failed to broker a new deal between the United States and Iran in which Washington would lift sanctions and Tehran would return to full compliance.

- Rouhani: IAEA will continue

Monitor all Iran's nuclear activities.