Tehran’s nuclear chief rejects any enrichment halt as oil closes above $104

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters on 8 October that Tehran would make no concessions on enrichment. “Enrichment is an integral part of the nuclear process, and we will not abandon it in any way,” he said, per Al Arabiya English. “How can you claim to have a nuclear industry if you don’t have the starting point of the process? The nuclear industry is the driving force of science and technology.” IranWire reported Eslami was responding to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s suggestion that Iran had lost its opportunity for a deal, and said Rubio’s comments stemmed “from desperation and that nuclear negotiations were never on the agenda in the first place.” Eslami described the programme as “completely transparent and within the framework of IAEA safeguards” and accused Israel of generating “hype” about it for 25 years.

Markets moved on the military track rather than the nuclear one. NBC News reported Brent crude rose as high as almost $106 before closing at $104.28, up 4 per cent, with US crude ending up 3.6 per cent at $91.49 after touching nearly $93. Heating oil, a proxy for jet fuel, rose more than 5 per cent. NBC noted Trump’s pledge failed to reverse the day’s gain. Investing.com reported that the earlier surge was driven by attacks on commercial shipping and by supply-disruption fears from adverse weather along the US Gulf coast — meaning part of Thursday’s move was an American weather story, not an Iranian one. By Friday’s Asian session, FXStreet reported WTI trading around $90.30.

Assessment: Eslami’s statement is a negotiating position restated, not a new one, and its value is in the timing: it lands the same day Trump claims “productive discussions” are under way. Both cannot be fully true. One side is talking to a domestic audience; possibly both are. Note also what Eslami did not address — the stockpile’s location or IAEA access since the strikes — and that his transparency claim went untested in the reporting available. On oil, resist attributing the whole 4 per cent to Iran. Fortune’s $108.33 snapshot does not reconcile with NBC’s settle prices and should not be mixed with them.