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Ships of the Iranian Navy in the Gulf of Oman (archive image)
Photo: SAJJAD SAFARI / AP
Iran has reported an incident involving the US Navy in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) announced in a press release on Wednesday that the US had seized an Iranian oil tanker and carried it off Iranian waters "in an act of piracy".
The US Department of Defense denied the allegations.
The IRGC said they were able to take the tanker back with a helicopter and return it to their own waters.
The efforts of the US Navy to prevent this rescue operation have failed, according to the IRGC, according to the Isna news agency.
Defense Department spokesman John Kirby called the information "absolutely false and untrue."
Kirby said on Wednesday, "There has been no such effort by the US Navy to confiscate anything."
The controversy comes at an unfortunate time.
It had only just become known that the nuclear negotiations with Iran are to be continued on November 29 in Vienna.
The European External Action Service announced on Wednesday evening.
The EU acts as a mediator between Iran and the US.
High diplomats from China, Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany will meet with representatives of Tehran under the chairmanship of the EU Foreign Affairs Representative, Josep Borrell.
Iran's deputy foreign minister and future head of the Iranian nuclear delegation, Ali Bagheri, also confirmed the appointment on Twitter that evening.
Biden has signaled an interest in negotiations
Negotiations to restore the 2015 Vienna Agreement were interrupted after the presidential election in June and the change of government in Tehran.
The remaining partners are trying to get the US back to the agreement.
They left in 2018 under the Trump administration.
The incumbent US President Joe Biden, however, has signaled that his country would be ready to return.
The prerequisite for this, however, would be that Tehran also recognizes its obligations.
The Vienna deal was supposed to prevent the construction of Iranian nuclear weapons.
In return, the sanctions on Iran should be lifted.
In response to the US sanctions, Tehran began to exceed the imposed technical restrictions in 2019, including making its uranium more and more weapons-grade.
jok / dpa
