Review of the State Visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Austria

PeopleDiplomats ♦ Published: July 5, 2018; 16:41 ♦ (Vindobona)

After the visit in March 2016, which was cancelled at short notice, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was on a state visit to Vienna this week, accompanied by massive anti-Iran protests. The aim of the visit was a joint commitment to the Iran nuclear deal after the deal was approved in Vienna three years ago. The visit was overshadowed by a diplomatic case involving an employee of the Iranian embassy in Vienna, who had been arrested last weekend by the German judicial authorities on the basis of a European arrest warrant on suspicion of terrorism.

After Rouhani's meetings with Van der Bellen and Kurz there were press statements, but questions were not allowed. / Picture: © Österreichische Präsidentschaftskanzlei / Peter Lechner/HBF

The Iranian President was received on Wednesday morning by the Federal President with military honours. Demonstrators of "Stop the Bomb" were banished to the other side of the ring because of the extensive ban on the use of space and described it as "questionable in terms of democratic politics" to be outside Rouhani's sight and hearing range. "We consider it fatal that the red carpet…