Chair,
On behalf of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, I thank Director General Grossi for his latest report on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The E3 are very grateful to the Agency for the professional, independent and impartial work of their team of inspectors and for their objective reporting on Iran’s nuclear programme. We encourage the Director General to keep the Board informed of all relevant activities and developments.
Once again, the IAEA reports the continued expansion of Iran’s nuclear activities, in increasing violation of its JCPoA commitments. The Agency recalls once again that it is not able to ensure Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful, and highlights that Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons to undertake production and accumulation of high enriched uranium.
Chair,
In the reporting period, Iran has continued to enrich uranium far beyond its JCPoA commitments :
- It has been blatantly violating all JCPoA limits on both enrichment and accumulation of enriched uranium. Its stockpile of high enriched uranium up to 60 % has continued to grow significantly, without any credible civilian justification;
- Iran now has almost four IAEA significant quantities of high enriched uranium, which the IAEA defines as the approximate amount of nuclear material from which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded;
- Over the last three months, Iran has also substantially expanded its overall production capacity by installing and operating new advanced centrifuges;
- For the first time in years, the DG also reported that Iran undertook some construction work at the Khondab Heavy Water Research Center, without communicating all the needed information to the Agency.
We also recall previous IAEA reports of Iran’s uranium metal-related work. The production of Uranium metal is a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon and we urge Iran not to undertake this work again.
Chair,
Iran continues obstructing the IAEA, which has detrimental implications for the Agency’s ability to provide assurance of the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme :
- For more than three and a half years, Iran has seriously hindered effective JCPoA verification and monitoring;
- As a result of this lack of transparency, the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate;
- Iran refuses to reverse its decision to withdraw the designation of several experienced Agency inspectors. We condemn this decision, which seriously affects the Agency’s ability to conduct its verification in Iran, particularly at the enrichment facilities;
- The DG also notes that it has been more than three years since Iran stopped applying its Additional Protocol.
Chair,
We would like to remind this Board of the statements made in Iran about its technical capability to produce nuclear weapons and the possibility of changing its so-called nuclear doctrine.
We again call on Iran to urgently:
- Halt and reverse its nuclear escalation and refrain from making threats to produce nuclear weapons;
- Return to the limits imposed by the JCPoA, in particular those regarding enrichment;
- Implement the March 2023 Joint statement and the commitments it made regarding transparency and cooperation with the IAEA including re-applying all transparency measures that it stopped in February 2021;
- Allow the Agency to install surveillance and monitoring equipment where requested;
- Re-implement and swiftly ratify its Additional Protocol; and
- Reverse its September 2023 decision to withdraw the designations of experienced inspectors.
Chair,
Iran’s escalating nuclear activities significantly harm international security and undermine the global non-proliferation architecture. We will continue consultations, alongside international partners, on how best to address collective doubts of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme. In 2022, Iran twice refused a negotiated outcome and instead chose to escalate and expand its nuclear programme to alarming levels. We remain committed to a diplomatic solution and stand ready to use all diplomatic levers available to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Finally, we ask the Director General to keep the Board of Governors informed on the status of Iran’s nuclear programme. We ask for the report to be made public.
Thank you.
