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 and Bosnia and Herzegovina^[1], the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

The European Union thanks the Director General for his update on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran 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 that the Agency is still not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful, due to Iran’s protracted lack of cooperation on the outstanding safeguards issues. It is regrettable that, despite four Board resolutions and numerous opportunities over five years, Iran has not provided full and technically credible explanations that would enable the Agency to confirm the correctness and completeness of its declarations. This is all the more worrying in light of public statements that the country may review its so called nuclear doctrine.

Two years ago, the Board decided in its November 2022 resolution that it was essential and urgent that Iran clarifies all outstanding safeguards issues. These issues relate to undeclared activities and sites involving undeclared nuclear material, which may still exist in Iran today and might not be under Agency safeguards. However, Iran’s level of cooperation remains insufficient according to the DG’s report. This is deeply concerning. As reaffirmed by the Board in its last resolution in June, Iran must act to fulfil its legal obligations by providing all necessary information and access without delay. Iran must allow verification by the Agency of the non-diversion of nuclear material.  

The EU supports the Agency’s efforts to obtain progress from Iran on resolving safeguards issues and improving cooperation. It is highly concerning that Iran’s implementation of the March 2023 Joint Statement had remained idle in the past 20 months. We call on Iran to implement the Joint Statement and seriously engage on the basis of the Agency’s latest proposals in a sustained and uninterrupted manner, until all outstanding issues are resolved.

The June resolution clearly set out the steps to be taken should Iran fail to provide the necessary cooperation with the Agency, including a request for a comprehensive and updated assessment on the possible presence or use of undeclared nuclear material in connection with past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme. It is deeply regretful that Iran has so far not taken the opportunity to clarify these issues.

We urge Iran to resume the provisional implementation of the Additional Protocol and to bring it into force, 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 under the Subsidiary Arrangements to its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, which cannot be modified or suspended unilaterally.

Regarding the discrepancy linked to Iran’s undeclared uranium metal activities, we are concerned by the Agency’s assessment that, after final evaluation of the data related to past experiments conducted at JHL, the amount of nuclear material unaccounted for is even greater than previously communicated to Iran and cannot be explained by accountancy measurement errors. We call on Iran to urgently clarify this issue. As long as such cases exist and are not fully clarified, there remains reasonable doubt about the nature of Iran’s nuclear activities.

To conclude, we are grateful for and fully support the DG’s long-standing efforts to remain open to constructive engagement with Iran, including his recent visit to Iran. However, in light of Iran’s persistent failure to cooperate towards the clarification of all outstanding safeguards issues, we believe the time has come to act. We therefore support the draft resolution tabled [by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America] for this Board, in support of the DG’s relentless efforts to obtain concrete progress from Iran on the implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards agreement and on the outstanding issues, and call on all Board Members to support it.

The EU urges Iran to work with the Agency swiftly and substantially, towards full compliance with its CSA obligations. It remains essential and urgent that Iran delivers on the actions specified in the November 2022 and June 2024 Board resolutions, as well as the other Board resolutions.

With this, the EU looks forward to additional reporting from the Director General on the Agency’s assessment of Iran’s implementation of its safeguards obligations and requests that this report be made public.

Thank you, Chair.

[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.