No rational nation would dismantle its centrifuges, Iranian cleric says

Afshin Pirnoon, a former director general in Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, was brought before the board as the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) argued he should be deported due to his role in the Iranian government.

Pirnoon, 49, arrived in Canada in 2022 and has since worked as an Uber driver while seeking refugee status.

Photos published on Iranian government websites show Pirnoon attending official events and speaking at public meetings alongside political and religious leaders. He has denied holding decision-making authority and said his work as a road safety expert was aimed at saving lives.

“Whatever I’ve done in my life so far was to safeguard human beings’ lives,” Pirnoon said at the hearing, according to Global News. “Working for a government does not mean supporting it.”

The hearing is one of several under a 2022 Canadian policy aimed at barring or expelling former Iranian officials accused of rights abuses or ties to groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. While immigration authorities have investigated dozens of individuals, only one deportation has been completed so far, with others leaving voluntarily.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, held a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday to discuss "cooperation over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program", Iranian state media reported.

The two also exchanged views on the latest status of indirect talks between Iran and the United States, the report said. No further details were provided.

A senior Iranian nuclear official has responded to recent comments by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying his statement about uranium enrichment was incorrect.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said that several countries enrich uranium without possessing nuclear weapons. “Countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, Argentina, and Germany conduct uranium enrichment and do not have nuclear weapons,” he told Iranian media.

“It is unfortunate that the US secretary of state made such a statement without proper knowledge,” Kamalvandi said.

Rubio said last week, “The only countries in the world that enrich uranium are the ones that have nuclear weapons,” in remarks that drew criticism in Tehran.

Paknejad said the new operations could unlock substantial reserves. “There is potential to extract over 600 million barrels of crude oil in place from this area,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 29th International Oil Exhibition in Tehran.

Exploratory drilling in Iran’s sector of the Caspian Sea had been largely inactive since the mid-1990s, due to technical, financial, and logistical challenges.

The minister did not specify when drilling would begin or which block would be targeted first.

The decision marks a renewed effort to join other Caspian littoral states — including Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan — that have developed significant offshore production in recent decades.

Iran remains the only Caspian country not currently extracting oil or gas from the sea. According to industry data, the region’s other coastal states collectively produced over 1.2 million barrels per day of oil and 50 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023, backed by more than $160 billion in cumulative investments.

International companies such as BP, TotalEnergies, Lukoil, Eni, and Dragon Oil have led offshore development in neighboring states. Meanwhile, Iran’s own efforts have faced repeated setbacks, including equipment failures, limited foreign investment, and deepwater technical constraints.

Despite previous announcements, including seismic surveys and attempted drillings using the Amir Kabir rig, Iran’s Caspian offshore activity has yielded no commercial output to date.