Iran denies reports on threat to block Hormuz Strait

Xinhuanet:

Iran on Saturday strongly denied a recent Western media report that its top nuclear official had threatened to block Hormuz Strait if its nuclear standoff could notbe settled, the official IRNA news agency reported. READ MORE

Some Western media, including the Wall Street Journal, had recently quoted Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), as saying that Tehran would block Hormuz Strait if Iran were dealt with in an illogical and arrogant way on the nuclear issue.

The IAEO denied Saturday in a statement that "foreign newspapers affiliated to certain lobbies have attributed such a statement to Saeedi to misrepresent the region as a trouble spot."Saeedi himself also said that he had not spoken about Hormuz Strait so far, IRNA said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi also told his weekly news briefing that the report about Saeedi's comments has been "imprecise and misinterpreted".

Hormuz Strait, the waterway from the Gulf to the India Ocean,plays a considerable role in the global transportation of oil. The Iranian nuclear standoff has been escalated since Tehran on Aug. 8 defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities in the central city Isfahan and rejected a comprehensive nuclear proposal made by the European Union (EU).

The EU and the International Atomic Energy Agency have urged Iran to reestablish the suspension on its sensitive nuclear activities, which has been rejected by Tehran.