Tehran: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Friday rejected a Fox News report claiming to have identified a new secret nuclear facility in Semnan province.
In a post on X, Araghchi dismissed the “Very Scary Satellite Images” touted by Fox News as part of an effort by Israel to derail the forthcoming indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.
“Like clockwork, more Very Scary Satellite Images are being circulated as Iran-US indirect nuclear talks are set to resume,” Araghchi said.
Fox News reported that it had exclusively obtained satellite imagery purportedly showing a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility, a 2,500-acre compound codenamed “Rainbow Site” that the network said has been disguised as the chemical producer Diba Energy Siba and active for more than a decade, Xinhua news agency reported.
The rebuttal comes on the eve of the fourth round of Oman-mediated indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear programme and US sanctions relief. To date, delegations from both sides have met three times, twice in Muscat on April 12 and April 26 and once in Rome on April 19.
On Thursday, a top Iranian military commander said that Iran prefers and prioritizes the path of diplomacy for resolving the nuclear issue, but is also ready for war if threatened, according to the official news agency IRNA.
“Our preference and priority regarding addressing the nuclear issue is the path of diplomacy and a fair manner, far from the atmosphere of threat. However, we are ready for any war on any scale,” Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Hossein Salami said at a commemoration ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Based on its own political will, Iran voluntarily does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, and has excluded such weapons from its defence doctrine, Salami said.
The United States, which has “bitter experiences” of interferences in other countries, has proven itself to be untrustworthy and incapable of keeping its promises, Salami noted, adding that should the United States threaten Iran, Iran would be ready for a war.
“If you put a foot wrong, we will open the doors of hell to you,” he said.
Salami’s remarks came after Iran and the United States held three rounds of indirect talks with mediation from Oman throughout April, and also after fresh US sanctions were imposed in late April on a number of individuals and entities in Iran and other countries.
The fourth round of Iran-US talks, which was originally scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed due to what Oman described as “logistical reasons.”
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