Ahead of the expected resumption of stalled talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian state television reported that Tehran had launched a solid-fueled rocket into space.
Against the backdrop of heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, state-run media aired dramatic footage of the blastoff at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province.
The aim of launching the 25.5 metre-long rocket, which is capable of carrying a satellite of 220 kilograms (485 pounds) that would ultimately gather data in low-earth orbit, is to promote Iran’s space industry, according to Ahmad Hosseini, spokesman for Iran’s Defense Ministry.
Calling the move as “unhelpful and destabilising,” the White House said it will not be helpful for Iran which is racing ahead under decreasing international oversight.
With Iranian media reporting that Qatar would likely host the negotiations, European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell said that talks over the nuclear deal would resume in an unnamed Persian Gulf country in the coming days.
Also read | Iran nuclear deal talks are ‘reopened’, says EU
Borrell, who has travelled to Tehran in a push to resuscitate negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program that have stalemated for months, added that Iran has demanded that Washington lift terrorism sanctions on its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Following former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran ramped up its nuclear work and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Iran removed over two dozen International Atomic Energy Agency cameras from its nuclear sites this month, in a further escalation that limits the international community’s view into its nuclear programme.
(With inputs from agencies)
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