News

LONDON (CNN) -- Iran offered to stop attacking coalition troops in Iraq nearly four years ago in an attempt to get the West to accept Tehran's nuclear program, a British diplomat told the BBC in an interview aired Saturday. John Sawers, British ambassador to the U.N., told BBC of Iran approaching Western nations with offer. "The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear program -- 'We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there, you allow us to carry on with our nuclear program without let or hindrance," said John Sawers, now the British ambassador to the United Nations, in the documentary, "Iran and the West: Nuclear Confrontation."