Chair, 

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The following countries align themselves with this statement: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Monaco, North Macedonia, San Marino, Norway and Ukraine. 

The European Union thanks the Director General for his comprehensive assessment under this agenda item and commends the DG and the Secretariat for their professional, independent and impartial work in verifying Iran's safeguards obligations.  

The EU remains gravely concerned by Iran’s protracted failure to sufficiently cooperate with the Agency in resolving long outstanding safeguards issues and that the Agency remains unable to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. It is deeply regrettable that, despite five Board resolutions and many reasonable opportunities provided over the past six years, Iran has not fulfilled its legal obligation to clarify the outstanding issues regarding undeclared nuclear material or facilities. Instead, Iran repeatedly either failed to respond to or provide technically credible answers to the Agency’s questions, while pursuing activities consistent with concealment efforts, including extensive sanitisation and the provision of inaccurate explanations. This has impeded the Agency’s verification activities and obstructed the effective implementation of safeguards.  

We note with deep concern the Agency’s conclusion in its latest report that three locations, and other possible related locations in Iran were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s, and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material. We also note that the Agency has no credible indications of an ongoing, undeclared structured nuclear programme. As clearly stands out from the report, the locations were part of undeclared structured activities involving inter alia the production of components for nuclear-device-related testing. The Agency assesses that Iran retained undeclared nuclear material and other assets arising from the former undeclared structured nuclear programme, which the IAEA is unable to locate. This means that, today, this nuclear material is unaccounted for in Iran and might be outside safeguards. Iran’s actions as reported in the Director General’s comprehensive report raise serious doubts about Iran’s upholding its safeguards obligations and it is therefore for the Board of Governors to consider further action.  

In the context of the serious findings outlined in the report, the repeated statements by former high- level officials in Iran related to Iran having all capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons have become even more worrying. Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state in the world to produce and accumulate uranium enriched to 60%. The potential proliferation-related implications of Iran’s rapid accumulation of highly enriched uranium urgently requires international attention.   

We urge Iran to resume the provisional implementation and bring into force the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, to assist the Agency to provide credible assurances on the absence of undeclared nuclear activities. Iran is the only State with a CSA that is not implementing modified Code 3.1 in contravention of the legal obligations set out in its Safeguards Agreement. This significantly obstructs the Agency’s visibility of relevant activities and undermines the effective implementation of safeguards in Iran.   

We share the DG’s assessment that Iran has, over several years, used the withdrawal of the designation of experienced inspectors in such a way that it undermines the Agency’s ability to conduct effective and efficient safeguards. In this regard it is deeply regretful that Iran has not reversed its previous decision, as requested by the Board and the DG.  

To conclude, we fully support the Agency’s long-standing efforts to achieve the required progress from Iran on all unresolved safeguards issues, with the aim to provide assurance of the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme. Based on the facts presented in the DG’s report and in this statement, we endorse the draft resolution tabled by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America for this Board, and call on all Board Members to support it. In line with the draft resolution, which, inter alia, finds Iran to be in non-compliance with its obligations under its CSA in the context of Article XII.C of the Agency’s Statute and which further finds, consistent with Article 19 of Iran’s CSA, that the Agency is not able to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material required to be safeguarded under the CSA, we urge Iran to remedy its non-compliance with its CSA obligations and cooperate with the Agency swiftly and substantially.  

With this, the EU looks forward to further regular reporting from the Director General and requests that this report be made public.  

Thank you, Chair.