Iran embassy rejects Telegraph report on enrichment rollback
Iran’s embassy in London on Wednesday rejected a British media report saying Tehran was prepared to scale back uranium enrichment.
Iran’s embassy in London on Wednesday rejected a British media report saying Tehran was prepared to scale back uranium enrichment.
“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London expresses deep concern about the repeated publication of biased and unfounded reports on Iran by the Daily Telegraph,” the mission said in a statement carried by IRNA.
“These articles, based on vague and unreliable sources, lack credibility and present a distorted and misleading picture of realities in Iran.”
The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Iranian officials were considering reducing enrichment from 60% to 20% under the guidance of Ali Larijani, the country’s new security chief, in order to avert further Israeli and US airstrikes and avoid the reimposition of UN sanctions.
Citing unnamed officials, the paper said Larijani was trying to convince Iran’s leadership that lowering enrichment levels could ease external pressure.
The embassy dismissed the report. “These unfounded claims are categorically rejected,” it said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei had earlier criticized the newspaper’s reporting practices, saying that the outlet had previously attributed news to “nonexistent informed sources” when producing stories on Iran.
The report coincided with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rejection of proposals from within Tehran’s reformists camp for direct talks with Washington.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany have warned Iran they will trigger a snapback of UN sanctions by the end of August unless Tehran reenters negotiations and delivers concrete results on its nuclear program.
The snapback is part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under Resolution 2231, any party to the accord can file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance. If no agreement is reached within 30 days to maintain sanctions relief, all previous UN sanctions automatically return, including arms embargoes, cargo inspections, and missile restrictions.
