The Iranian leadership has asserted that it was not involved in the attempted assassination of Salman Rushdie.
That can be the case, even if one should wait for the American investigations.
However, the fact that she assigns responsibility for the attempt on his life to the writer himself is a distortion of the facts.
Rushdie has been in danger for thirty years because the then revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death in 1989.
To date, his successor has not disputed the validity of this fatwa.
The intellectual originators of Rushdie's persecution are based in Tehran, they fueled the "popular anger" in the first place, which the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry is now citing as justification for the act.
Even in denial, the "Islamic Republic" reveals its theocratic and anti-enlightenment character.
No reliable partner
This should not be forgotten when it comes to the future of the nuclear agreement.
Europe and the United States have an interest in preventing the country from becoming nuclear armed.
But if the agreement were to be revived, Iran would not be a reliable political partner, certainly not in the Middle East.
Iran remains a political and ideological opponent of the West, increasingly supported by Russia and China.