PRINT

EU Statement at IAEA Board of Governors on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as delivered on 23 November 2023

23.11.2023 Press and information team of the Delegation to UN and OSCE in Vienna

Chair,

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

The European Union welcomes the Director General's update on the implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in Iran contained in document GOV/2023/58 and thanks Deputy Director General Aparo for the technical briefing on 17 November 2023. We commend the Director General and the Secretariat for their professional, objective, independent and impartial work in verifying Iran's safeguards obligations. The EU encourages the IAEA to continue to use all safeguards-relevant information available to it as per standard practice.

The EU is gravely concerned that in this reporting period Iran has not made any progress in resolving the remaining outstanding safeguards issues, despite numerous resolutions of the Board and many opportunities provided by the DG over a number of years. In November last year the Board decided in its resolution that it was “essential and urgent in order to ensure verification of the non-diversion of nuclear material” that Iran clarify all outstanding safeguards issues. We expect that Iran act promptly to implement its safeguards obligations so as to restore confidence by entering into full, substantial and constructive cooperation with the Agency. All safeguards issues will remain under our close scrutiny, until the DG reports that they are no longer outstanding.

The EU remains deeply concerned at the presence of nuclear material at undeclared locations in Iran and that the current location of this nuclear material and/or of equipment contaminated by nuclear material, which may still exist in Iran today, is not known to the Agency.

The discrepancy in the nuclear material balance evaluation at the Uranium Conversion Facility still remains unresolved. We note that Iran has provided to the Agency updated information regarding the discrepancy, which the Agency is currently assessing. Previous explanations by Iran had not addressed the discrepancy and therefore were not acceptable to the Agency.

We join the DG in his strong condemnation of Iran’s sudden withdrawal of the designations of several experienced Agency inspectors, whom the Agency deems crucial for the implementation of safeguards. The Agency regards Iran’s stance as unambiguously contrary to the cooperation that is required and expected in order to facilitate the effective implementation of its NPT Safeguards Agreement. The independent technical work of the Agency cannot be subject to Iran’s political interpretation of other Member States’ views in this manner. The EU urges Iran to reverse these regrettable, unilateral and politically-driven measures, which risk impeding the conduct of inspections as described in Iran’s NPT Safeguards Agreement.

It is indispensable that the IAEA is able to detect and report in a timely manner any move by Iran to escalate its nuclear activities. We remain seriously concerned by the technical capability of Iran to reach unprecedented levels of enrichment that bear grave proliferation risks.  

It is extremely concerning that the Agency is still not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. The EU recalls that the current global verification standard is based on the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement combined with an Additional Protocol. We call on Iran to resume the provisional implementation of the Additional Protocol and to ratify it, to enable the Agency to provide credible assurances on the absence of undeclared nuclear activities. We stress that the implementation of modified Code 3.1 is a legal obligation for Iran under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, which cannot be modified or suspended unilaterally. It is unacceptable that Iran’s response to the Agency indicates its unwillingness to work with the Agency to address the issue of new nuclear facilities for which a decision to construct had been taken.

We share the DG’s serious concern that Iran appears to have “frozen” the implementation of the March Joint Statement for the past two reporting periods. Iran did not accept the Agency’s two proposals towards implementing agreed voluntary measures under the Joint Statement, nor has it provided the requested additional information concerning the containers at Turquzabad. We note with great concern the Director General’s report on the indication by Vice-President Eslami during a meeting with him on 25 September, that “there would be no significant progress towards implementing the Joint Statement, particularly with regard to JCPOA nuclear-related commitments, while sanctions remained in place”. We concur with the Director-General, that the Joint statement has been agreed by both parties and should be implemented in good faith.

In light of the Agency’s assessment in GOV/2023/58, the EU expects Iran to address without further delay:

  • the outstanding safeguards issues in relation to Turquzabad and Varamin, including informing the Agency of the current location(s) of nuclear material and/or of contaminated equipment.
  • the de-designations of experienced Agency inspectors.
  • the legal obligation to implement modified Code 3.1.
  • the discrepancy in the amount of nuclear material at UCF.

To conclude, the EU urges Iran to work with the Agency swiftly and substantially, towards the fulfillment of its commitments. It remains essential and urgent that Iran delivers on safeguards obligations and implements the actions specified in the November 2022 resolution. We expect and would welcome rapid and tangible progress in the shortest timeframe and we are determined to support further action by the Board accordingly.

With this, the EU takes note of the report, looks forward to the Director General continuing to report to the Board, and requests that this report be made public.

Thank you, Chair.

 

 

* Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

+ Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are members of the EFTA and of the European Economic Area.