The United States prevented Iran's nuclear chief from attending this week's International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna after opposing a request to exempt him from UN travel restrictions, drawing an angry response from Tehran, Reuters reported Monday.
Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was scheduled to attend and address the IAEA General Conference, which opened Monday. Iran said, however, that Austria revoked his visa after initially approving it.
"The cancellation and so-called legal justification advanced for it are a stark indication of a political act and advanced formal politicisation of this organisation," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA told the conference.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei accused Washington of pressuring Austria to withdraw Eslami's visa. Iran and Russia also said the incident was part of a broader effort to prevent Iranian officials from receiving visas for international travel.
Washington said it opposed an exemption that would have permitted Eslami to travel despite sanctions reinstated through the UN Security Council's "snapback" mechanism.
Eslami was among the Iranian officials targeted by sanctions that were lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The agreement collapsed after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018, during his first term in office. Western powers later activated the "snapback" mechanism, restoring the sanctions last year.
Iran and countries including Russia reject the legitimacy of the renewed sanctions. Austria confirmed that it had sought an exemption for Eslami.
"Austria, although being only the host state, submitted a request for an exemption to the travel ban to the Security Council sanctions committee, which was rejected," Ambassador Christian Ebner told the conference.
"As a consequence, Austria was obliged to deny one member of the Iranian delegation the entry into its territory," he said.
US Ambassador Preston Wells Griffith III said Washington had opposed the exemption request at the UN, leading to its rejection.
"The United States objected to the exemption request, which per the rules of the UN sanctions committee resulted in the UN Security Council denying the request," he said.
Griffith also argued that allowing Eslami to participate would have served as a platform for Iranian propaganda rather than encouraging cooperation with international inspectors.
The dispute comes as international scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program intensifies. Last week, the IAEA Board of Governors referred Tehran to the UN Security Council over its failure to cooperate with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
It was the first such referral by the IAEA board concerning Iran in 20 years. Western officials have raised concerns that the uranium traces could be evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program that continued until 2003. Tehran has repeatedly rejected allegations that it is seeking nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear activities are exclusively peaceful.
The resolution was introduced by the United States, Britain, France and Germany. It received support from 23 of the IAEA Board of Governors' 35 members at a vote in Vienna. Russia, China and Niger opposed it, eight countries abstained and one did not vote because of arrears.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Monday that the agency has conducted almost no inspections in Iran for more than six months. The sole exception was an inspection at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in June.
Grossi said IAEA inspectors were withdrawn following renewed attacks on Iran in late February, sharply reducing international monitoring of the country's nuclear program.
The agency has also been unable for more than a year to maintain continuous knowledge of Iran's previously declared enriched uranium stockpiles at facilities affected by the June 2025 strikes.
The stockpiles include uranium enriched to 60% purity, considerably above the level needed for civilian nuclear energy and close to weapons-grade enrichment.
Grossi warned that the lack of clarity over the location and condition of the nuclear material, combined with the inability to access facilities where it was stored, constitutes an urgent proliferation concern.