Iran’s mission to the UN dismisses reports of the delegation’s expulsion from the U.S. as “baseless”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations has dismissed as “baseless” reports that its diplomats were expelled from the United States after the collapse of the nuclear talks, according to the latest update broadcast by Al Jazeera. According to the Iranian mission, the delegation left New York on Monday as planned — and not on Washington’s orders.

The reaction came a few hours after the American outlet Axios reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had asked the Iranians to leave the U.S. by Wednesday evening, after the nuclear negotiations collapsed on Tuesday. In a post on the X network, the Iranian mission wrote: “Having achieved nothing, the State Department and this outlet have now turned to fabrications and lies.”

The reported order for the Iranian delegation to leave early came after the indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar on the margins of the UN General Assembly, stalled. The talks, which were aimed at building trust in order to pave the way for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, collapsed without an agreement.

Tehran and Washington have now been at war for seven months, while diplomatic efforts continue on several fronts. Iran has demanded the lifting of the American naval blockade and of sanctions as a condition for reopening Hormuz, while the U.S. is seeking an agreement that would settle all the open issues at once, including Iran’s nuclear programme.