We, the Governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, welcome the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors’ adoption of a resolution on Iran this afternoon. The resolution responds to Iran’s persistent refusal to cooperate in good faith with the IAEA to clarify outstanding issues relating to undeclared nuclear material detected at multiple locations in Iran. Iran is legally obligated under its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement to cooperate with the IAEA and account for all nuclear material and activities.

18 months ago, the IAEA Board stated that it was essential and urgent for Iran to act without delay to fulfil its NPT-required safeguards obligations to ensure the IAEA is able to verify that no nuclear material is diverted. Since then, Iran has consistently failed to meaningfully cooperate with the Agency, further restricted Agency access by de-designating experienced inspectors, and accumulated provocative statements on its technical capability to build nuclear weapons that are contrary to Iran’s NPT obligations. Despite the repeated efforts by the IAEA Director General to engage in a substantial dialogue with Iran, Iran has made no progress to resolve the issues.

With this new resolution, the IAEA Board sends a strong and renewed message of support for the IAEA and its Director-General’s relentless efforts to address the issue. The Board will not sit idly by when Iran challenges the foundations of the non-proliferation system and undermines the credibility of the international safeguards regime. Iran must cooperate with the Agency and provide technically credible explanations which satisfy the Agency’s questions. This resolution supports the Agency to pursue its dialogue with Iran to clarify all outstanding safeguards issues, while setting the stage for further steps to hold Iran to account if it fails to make concrete progress.

If Iran meaningfully cooperates with the Agency, and the Director General is able to report that the unresolved safeguards issues are no longer outstanding, the Board could then close its consideration of this matter. We hope Iran takes this opportunity to resolve these outstanding matters so that no further Board action is necessary.