The head of Iran’s nuclear sector was unable to attend an annual conference at the headquarters of the UN atomic energy agency in Vienna due to opposition from the United States, Iranian state television reported on Monday.
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“Mohamad Eslami and his delegation took a regular flight to Vienna on Saturday, but were blocked on the way due to obstructions from the United States,” the television stated. It specified that the senior official has returned to Tehran.
He was supposed to arrive in Austria, the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN control body, for the annual general conference held until Friday.
Mohamad Eslami participated in last year’s conference, in September 2025.
A diplomatic source in Vienna confirmed anonymously that he was denied entry to Austria due to U.S. pressures.
“He is a sanctioned individual and we do not want sanctioned individuals to evade their sanctions. He requested a sanctions exemption and was denied,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told the press in Vienna on Monday.
The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, Esmail Baqai, denounced that Vienna’s refusal “to grant visas to the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a completely unjustified decision.”
“It is clear to all of us that this incident occurred due to pressures from the United States, but this does not exempt the Austrian government from all responsibility,” he added.
For his part, Behrooz Kamalvandi, an Iranian official in charge of international legal affairs at the IAEA, warned that this “malicious act by the U.S. administration” will set “a precedent that will affect the whole world.”
On February 28, the United States and Israel unleashed a war against Iran, arguing that its nuclear program posed a danger.
These two countries, as well as Europeans, suspect that Iran wants to equip itself with atomic weapons but the Islamic republic categorically denies it.
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