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Austria bars Iran nuclear chief from IAEA summit due to US pressure

The Cradle | September 14, 2026

Iran’s top nuclear official has been blocked from addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) general conference in Vienna after pressure from Washington, Bloomberg reported on 14 September, citing a US official.

Iran’s vice president for nuclear affairs, Mohammad Eslami, left Tehran on Saturday and was slated to address the UN nuclear watchdog as part of its 70th General Conference, which began on Monday.

However, Austria denied Eslami entry at the request of the Trump administration, an anonymous US official told Bloomberg.

A spokeswoman for the Austrian government referred questions over the issue to the Foreign Ministry, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“His attendance and early speaking slot could have been seen as lending credibility to Iran,” Bloomberg wrote.

Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright will be given a platform to speak at the conference. He plans to promote US claims that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

While the US has attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, it has never produced evidence that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran has long said its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and has allowed the IAEA to monitor its activities.

Wright’s planned speech follows a claim from the IAEA that the agency observed nuclear related construction activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain.

President Trump claimed last Wednesday that there was “a little activity at Pickaxe” and warned Iran “not to get cute, because we will have to hit them very hard.”

In response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the IAEA and US claims of construction at the site are “part of Washington’s psychological warfare.”

They speak as if a secret and confidential case has been discovered while, in fact, “we are facing fuss for nothing,” Baghaei stated.

Iran submitted a formal request to the IAEA Secretariat to discuss at the conference the topic of “prohibiting all forms of attacks and threats of attack against nuclear sites and facilities that are under Agency safeguards and dedicated to peaceful purposes.”

US influence over the IAEA was apparent last week, when the UN agency referred Iran to the UN Security Council (UNSC) for “non-compliance” with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) treaty.

The board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog passed a resolution at a meeting in Vienna claiming a lack of information on Iran’s nuclear material and the lack of access to nuclear facilities for IAEA inspectors.

The IAEA resolution was tabled by the UK, France, Germany and the US and called for IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to report Iran to the Security Council.

Representatives of 23 countries on the IAEA board of governors voted to approve the measure, while eight abstained. China, Russia and Niger voted against it.

The US and its European allies will likely use the decision to impose new sanctions on Iran through the Security Council.

However, Russia and China could block such efforts with their vetoes.

Tehran condemned the IAEA decision, saying that US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities had disrupted nuclear inspections.

“They attack Iran’s safeguarded nuclear facilities, disrupt the normal process of verification, and then use that very disruption as a pretext to issue a resolution,” Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote in a post on X.

The US and Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities during their unprovoked 12-day war on the Islamic Republic in June 2025.

Washington and Tel Aviv renewed their aggression against Tehran during 40 days of intense strikes in February of this year.

September 14, 2026 - Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Wars for Israel | , , ,

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