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Chair,

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom would like to thank Director General Grossifor his report on the implementation of safeguards in Iran, contained in GOV/2021/52, andDeputy Director General Aparo for the Technical Briefing on 18 November.

First, we would like to underscore our grave concern by the information in the DirectorGenerals report that IAEA inspectors operating in Iran have, for several months, beensubjected to intimidation through excessively invasive physical searches. This is unacceptableand unprecedented. We express our full support for IAEA inspectors who carry out their roleswith impartiality, professionalism, and dedication and must be able to undertake their dutieswithout fear of intimidation. As the Director General noted, Irans new security proceduresare inconsistent with both internationally accepted security practices and the Agreement onthe Privileges and Immunities of the IAEA, and prevent IAEA inspectors from being able toeffectively discharge their functions under the NPT Safeguards Agreement. Like all NPT stateparties, Iran is legally obliged to take the necessary steps to ensure that Agency inspectors caneffectively discharge their functions. We call on Iran to take immediate steps to prevent anyfurther incidents from occurring, and encourage the Director General to promptly report anynew incidents to this Board. We fully associate ourselves with the statement by Canada, to bedelivered later, on behalf of a group of states.

Chair,

We would like to commend the efforts of the Director General and the Secretariat inverifying Irans compliance with its safeguards obligations and commitments. We firmlysupport their professional and impartial efforts to fully clarify information concerning thecorrectness and completeness of Irans declarations under its NPT Safeguards Agreement. Wereiterate the importance of the IAEA continuing to evaluate all safeguards-relevantinformation available to it in line with standard practice.

We fully support the Director Generals tireless efforts to engage in substantialdiscussions with Iran in order to resolve issues related to four undeclared locations in Iran. Ithas now been over two years since these efforts commenced, and seventeen months sincethe Board adopted a resolution calling on Iran to fully co-operate with the Agency and satisfy its requests without any further delay. Yet Iran has still failed to provide the necessaryexplanation for the presence of anthropogenic nuclear material particles related to threelocations, as well as the current location of natural uranium in the form of a metal disc.

In the absence of a credible explanation from Iran, we share the deep concerns of theDirector General that undeclared nuclear material and/or equipment has been present atundeclared locations in Iran and its current location is not known to the Agency. As we haverepeatedly stated, this is not just a question of Irans past activities but a live issue concerningthe completeness and correctness of Irans safeguards declarations today.

The Director Generals report also noted Irans sustained lack of substantiveengagement with the Agency since September, with no interactions at all on two of theoutstanding cases and no meaningful progress in resolving the remaining issues. We recallthat in Irans Joint Statement with the Agency of 12 September, Iran committed to enablingthe Director General to hold high-level consultations in Tehran on enhancing co-operation.Yet Iran delayed for over two months in scheduling this visit until the very eve of the Board,which has undermined the Director Generals ability to provide full and timely reporting to theBoard.

Chair,

The Director General updated the Board on 24 November that, despite his efforts, hehad been unable to reach an agreement with Iran to address the issues raised in this reportwhich Iran has now had over two years to resolve and also the issue relevant to the JCPOAcovered during his visit. The Director General asked for the Boards continued support in hisefforts to engage with Iran. Iran now needs to fully co-operate and actively engage with theAgency without further delay. Should rapid and tangible progress not be forthcoming, ameeting of a special board to take action will very soon become inevitable.

Finally, we echo the Director Generals call on Iran to fulfill all its legal obligations underthe Subsidiary Arrangements to its NPT Safeguards Agreement, including fully implementingModified Code 3.1. We reiterate that implementation of Modified Code 3.1 cannot bemodified or suspended unilaterally. In refusing to fully co-operate with the IAEA, Iranundermines the integrity of the global safeguards system.

We encourage the Director General to continue reporting to the Board of Governors,as appropriate, and would welcome making report GOV/2021/52 public.

Thank you.

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NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran: E3 statement to the IAEA, November 2021 - GOV.UK