WASHINGTON, April 18: A close aide to Iran’s top nuclear official is visiting arch foe the United States — at the height of a showdown between the West and Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The US State Department confirmed on Monday that Mohammad Nahavandian, an economics and technology aide to Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, was in town, but would not say how he got into the country or what he was doing.

“He’s not here for meetings with US government officials to my knowledge; certainly not with members of the State Department,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.

McCormack said Nahavandian had not been issued a visa but was in the United States legally, saying only: “There are a variety of other ways for an individual to arrive in the country.”

Iran’s influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday that Nahavandian, who is also president of Tehran’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, was in the United States for a conference.

“He received an invitation to participate in a conference in America, being organised by US scholars. He will address the conference,” he told a press conference in Kuwait, without giving further details.

“I heard reports that he held official talks in Washington, but Iran has denied such reports,” he added.

The rare sighting of a senior Iranian official in Washington comes at a time when Iran’s showdown with the West over its nuclear programme — which Washington claims is a cover for efforts to build atomic weapons — was nearing a climax.

In Tehran, an Iranian source said he was ‘not aware’ of the Washington visit but added that Nahavandian had studied in the past in the US and could be there for ‘various reasons’.—AFP