Iran condemns Austria "unjustified" in denying nuclear chief visa

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday condemned Austria's "unjustified" move to deny the Iranian nuclear chief a visa and prevent him from attending an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna.

Making the remarks at a weekly press conference in Tehran, Baghaei stressed that the Austrian government, as the event's host, should have issued visas to members of the Iranian delegation in accordance with its obligations.

He said that Iran has summoned Austria's charge d'affaires in Tehran and explicitly conveyed its protest to the Austrian government.

Baghaei said they level accusations, issue resolutions and release "incorrect" reports against Iran, and then prevent Iranian representatives from going and defending their country in the international arena, describing such actions as "contradictory and a war in the diplomatic and legal areas to prevent Iran's voice from being heard by other countries."

He emphasized that Iran will use all its tools to prevent the achievement of that objective, adding that the Austrian government's pretext that it took the action under U.S. pressure in no way absolves it of its responsibility as the host government.

Iran's state-run IRIB news agency reported Monday that Austria has denied a visa to the president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami, who was scheduled to deliver a speech at the 70th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna later in the day, citing "obstructionism" by the United States and certain other countries as the reason.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, raised the issue at the conference on Monday, saying Eslami's exclusion violated Iran's right as a member state to attend the event, and describing it as a serious incident that runs counter to the principle of sovereign equality established under the Statute of the IAEA.

Iran condemns Austria "unjustified" in denying nuclear chief visa

A newly released Chinese documentary provides a rare glimpse into the country's crackdown on cross-border telecom scam networks in northern Myanmar, highlighting the pivotal role of technological countermeasures in the campaign.

Titled "The Demise of Telecom Fraud in Northern Myanmar," the three-part documentary was jointly produced by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and China Media Group, and was aired on CCTV nationwide on Monday. It reveals the brutal conditions inside telecom fraud compounds in northern Myanmar, where scams mainly targeted Chinese citizens.

The documentary unveils the covert methods used by fraud gangs, such as stealing China's communication signals to make their scams highly deceptive.

"For example, they secretly ran wireless bridges, cables and fiber optics to pull domestic network signals into Muse (town in Myanmar) for remote use, allowing them to pose as users inside China and carry out fraud," said Zhang Zheng, a second-level inspector at the Cybersecurity Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to the documentary, expert teams from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology worked with public security authorities to conduct a sweeping inspection for illegal equipment in key areas.

In just three months, they shut down 75,000 fraud-related mobile phone numbers and more than 4,000 broadband accounts, and cleared nearly 100 wireless bridges, effectively cutting off the communication channels between fraudsters and users inside China.

Chinese documentary spotlights tech in Myanmar telecom fraud crackdown