Iran nuclear chief barred from IAEA meeting, Tehran blames US

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“He asked for a waiver of the sanctions and it was denied.”

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Iranian state TV said Eslami and a delegation “took a regular flight to Vienna on Saturday, but were blocked on the way because of obstructions by the United States”.

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Behrouz Kamalvandi, a senior official from Iran’s nuclear agency, accused the US of “bullying political pressure” and said the block set a precedent that would affect everybody.

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The Austrian foreign ministry told AFP it had requested an exemption for Mohammad Eslami, who is covered by a UN travel ban, but that the Security Council rejected it “due to a lack of consensus”.

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A diplomatic source in Vienna had told AFP earlier that US pressure was behind the entry refusal.

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Eslami was due to attend the annual general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, which runs until Friday.

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Eslami attended last year’s event and delivered a speech there on behalf of Iran, a member state of the IAEA, despite the sanctions against him already being in place.

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Tehran summoned Austria’s charge d’affaires in response to the decision to bar Eslami.

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“The Austrian government’s refusal to issue visas to the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a completely unjustified decision,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said at a press conference in Tehran attended by AFP.

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“It is clear to us that this incident occurred under American pressure, but that does not absolve the Austrian government of responsibility.”

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The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28.

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For decades, Western powers have accused the Islamic republic of seeking nuclear weapons, a claim that Tehran categorically denies.

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AFP

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