E3 statement on NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran

Thank you, Madam Chair.

1. I have the honour of speaking on behalf of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

2. We would like to thank the Director General for his report contained in document GOV/2020/47 on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

3. We commend the Agency for its continued and intense efforts over almost a year to engage Iran in a substantial dialogue to clarify information relating to the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations under its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol. We appreciate the Director General’s intensive personal efforts aimed at securing access to two specified locations in Iran and clarifying questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material or nuclear-related activities in Iran.

4. We welcome the Joint Statement reached on 26 August between the Agency and Iran. The Statement paves a procedural way forward towards the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the Agency and towards implementation by Iran of its legal obligations to provide access to sites identified by IAEA.

5. We take note of Iran’s encouraging statements on its intention to further strengthen its cooperation with the IAEA, and that access to one specified location has already been provided and the date for access to the second location has been scheduled. Furthermore, we note that the Agency has also conducted an additional inventory verification activity at a facility in Iran, in line with the above-mentioned Joint Statement. We expect Iran to fully implement the Joint Statement and provide full access to the second site on the date agreed with the Agency.

6. We call on Iran to provide the IAEA with the requested information and clarifications needed to resolve all open safeguards questions, including on the origins of anthropogenic natural uranium particles detected by the Agency at an undeclared location in 2019. This is a matter of Iran’s legally binding safeguards obligations.

7. We have confidence in the robustness and comprehensiveness of standard practice whereby the Agency evaluates all available safeguards-relevant information, including third-party information. The IAEA has robust procedures in place to corroborate and verify the veracity of third party information.

8. We encourage the Agency to continue to provide updates on the aforementioned issues to the Board as appropriate.

9. For transparency reasons, we would welcome the publication of the Director General’s report contained in GOV/2020/47.

Thank you, Madam Chair.