Iran Denies Reports on EU Commissioner’s Visit to Tehran

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has dismissed the reports and speculations regarding the unexpected visit of a European Union official to Iran.

“The report is totally false and Mr. Andrus Ansip, the European Commissioner for Digital Single Market, has not had any visit to Iran, either in personal capacity or as an EU official,” Qassemi noted in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement came after media reports claimed Ansip had arrived in Tehran on Thursday (July 27), without making a noise in the media and without receiving the official welcome, usually in the hands of foreign diplomats.

Certain Iranian media outlets further claimed the visit was so unexpected that his arrival in Iran, via Imam Khomeini International Airport, caused problems that kept him for several hours at the airport.

“In the absence of coordination, officials of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have enough time to prepare the reception protocols and the European official had to spend three hours at the airport,” the media reports added, raising speculations about Ansip’s economic mission in Iran.

The European Commission is the institution with executive power in the European Union and Ansip is the Vice-President responsible for the Single Digital Market.

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