‘US websites seizure unhelpful for N-talks’

Tehran: Tehran warned on Wednesday that Washington’s seizure of 33 websites run by Iran-linked media was "not constructive" for ongoing talks on bringing the United States back into a landmark nuclear deal.

The US Justice Department said it had seized 33 Iranian government-controlled media websites, as well as three of the Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah, which it said were hosted on US-owned domains in violation of sanctions.

Iran’s state broadcaster accused the US of repressing freedom of expression, while the president’s office questioned the timing of the move as talks on bringing Washington back into the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers are reportedly making headway.

"We are using all international and legal means to... condemn... this mistaken policy of the United States," the director of the president’s office, Mahmoud Vaezi, told reporters. "It appears not constructive when talks for a deal on the nuclear issue are under way."

The 2015 deal saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear activities in return for an easing of sanctions, but in 2018 then US president Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement and ramped up sanctions, prompting Iran to pull back from its own commitments.

Trump’s successor Joe Biden has signalled his readiness to return to the deal and state parties -- also including Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- have been negotiating its revival in Vienna since early April.

EU negotiator Enrique Mora said on Sunday that those involved in the talks were "closer" to saving the Iran nuclear deal but that sticking points remain. The US action also comes just after Iranians chose ultraconservative cleric Ibrahim Raisi as president in an election the US State Department characterised as neither free nor fair.

Visitors to leading Iranian media sites like Press TV and Al-Alam, the country’s main English- and Arabic-language broadcasters, as well as the Al-Masirah TV channel of Yemen’s Huthis, were met with single-page statements declaring the website "has been seized by the US government" accompanied by the seals of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Commerce Department.