Statement by H.E. Ambassador Reza Najafi

Statement by H.E. Ambassador Reza Najafi,Resident Representative to the IAEA before the Board of Governors:

In the Name of God

The Compassionate and the Merciful

Mr. Chairman, Director General, Distinguished Colleagues,

My delegation is very pleased that the Non-Aligned Movement once again fully supported Iran’s peaceful nuclear program in this meeting. Mr. Chairman, since this is your last meeting of the Board, let me put on the record the appreciation of my delegation to your excellent work for presiding over this august body. Your diplomatic skills and professional leadership has guided the Board to have successful meetings throughout last year. I wish you all the best.

Mr. Chairman,

As it was reported by the Director General, there is a growing tendency towards the use of nuclear energy and in addition to the current 437 operational nuclear power reactors in 30 countries, 70 reactors are under construction. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries that are planning to build more nuclear power reactors and at the same time, we intend to complete our fuel production program in line with our practical needs as it was originally designed. In the mean time, we continue to maintain full transparency of our nuclear activities in accordance with our safeguards obligations.

In this connection, the new report of the Agency demonstrates once more that all of Iran’s exclusively peaceful nuclear activities are under the IAEA full-scope safeguards and there has been no diversion in them at all. Furthermore, since last November when the Islamic Republic of Iran and EU3+3 agreed on the Joint Plan of Action, the IAEA has continuously confirmed that Iran has honored its voluntary commitments under the Joint Plan of Action and the recent report is another witness to such fact.

Last November, Iran and IAEA has also issued a joint statement on a Framework for Cooperation, which is the foundation for the work between Iran and the Agency. During the recent visit by the IAEA Director General, the Agency and Iran reconfirmed that Framework for Cooperation would continue to be the basis for the resolution of all past and present issues that have not already been resolved by the IAEA. In the meeting between H. E. President Rouhani and the Director General, Iran stated that the process of resolution of issues could be accelerated. However, the Director General in the meeting acknowledged the fact that due to the complexity of the issues such process will take time. The high officials in Iran also declared that there are sensitive areas related to national security, like the defensive capabilities, which are not subject to any kind of negotiation at any level.

It is worth mentioning that Iran has not recognized the so-called “PMD” and indeed the Framework for Cooperation does not have any reference to such irrelevant notion. There have never been any authenticated documents for PMD claims and as it was underlined by the former Director General in his reports (GOV/2009/55), even the Agency has limited means to validate independently the documentation that forms the basis of it and thus in reality, there is no “system” requiring any kind of “system assessment”. Moreover so-called system assessment in not consistent with the step-by-step approach, agreed in the Framework for Cooperation. However, based on our principled positions, we continue to cooperate with the IAEA on some of the ambiguities in order to clarify them.

Mr. Chairman,

In last several months, based on Framework for Cooperation, the Islamic Republic of Iran has voluntarily implemented 18 practical measures, two of which have not completed yet due to their complexity, invalidity of Agency’s information or better to say invalidity of information given to the Agency and lack of substantiated evidences at the disposal of the Agency. The Agency was aware that there was a possibility of not being able to reach the timing of 25 August and therefore “missing the deadline” is totally inaccurate. One of the main reasons was also related to the Agency’s late announcement on conclusion of the issue of exploding bridge wires.  One of the allegations, among the past issues that had not already been resolved by the IAEA, was the issue of exploding bridge wires (EBWs) applications. Iran by providing the necessary information and substantiated documents to the Agency proved that EBWs have been developed for the civilian applications in oil and gas industry. Needless to say that Iran has a large oil and gas industry and it is not unusual to develop and use all kind of technologies, including EBWs in this field which are “specialized industry practices” all over the world.

In continuation of our cooperation with the Agency, we have had technical meetings, the last one took place in Tehran on 31 August 2014 during which we seriously discussed two remaining practical measures. We plan to have, very soon, another technical meeting on these two practical measures in order to conclude them and as soon as these issues are clarified and closed, we can start to implement new practical measure.

Mr. Chairman,

On the political side, we have continued to negotiate in good faith with our counterparts in the Group of EU3+3. It is a common view that a durable comprehensive agreement would be beneficial to all sides. Such an agreement could be attainable if the other sides, like Iran continue to negotiate in good faith, taking into account the realities on the ground and not looking for impracticalities. A comprehensive deal would give the other sides what they are looking for in terms of peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear program through sustained transparency measures. It would also enable Iran to maintain exercising its inalienable rights for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, particularly fuel cycle, without any hindrance and under the NPT in addition to the removal of its item from the agenda of the UN Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors and lifting all kind of sanctions. The credibility and integrity of the NPT would also be upheld by such a comprehensive agreement.

Mr. Chairman,

The Islamic Republic of Iran as a committed member of the IAEA and as a State Party to the NPT has not asked anything rather than that the full exercise of its rights would be respected and unjustified pressures would be totally removed.

My delegation would like to thank all Member States for their support to the process of a negotiated solution in this regard.

Before concluding, I have to make some additional observations:

As I referred in my recent letter to the IAEA Director General, On 23 August 2014, (INFCIRC/867) an unmanned aerial vehicle (spy drone), built and operated, by the Israeli regime, violated the Iranian airspace in an attempt to conduct spy mission in the zone where Natanz Nuclear Facilities are located. This act of aggression, which once again revealed the true nature of the Israeli regime, is in flagrant violation of the relevant IAEA General Conference Resolutions on inviolability of peaceful nuclear activities and installations, including GC resolutions 533 and 444  which stipulating, inter alia, that "any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and the Statute of the Agency". The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns this act of aggression while reiterating its position that it reserves right to undertake all legitimate necessary measures to defend its territory and warn against such provocative act which would result in serious consequences for the aggressor. Such a serious threat against safeguarded nuclear facilities where the IAEA inspectors are present and enriched nuclear materials exist should not be overlooked by the Agency. Indeed the ignorance of such an irresponsible Israeli act that endangered the IAEA personnel too would put the impartiality of the Agency under serious question.

Few Members referred to IAEA and UNSC resolutions and asked for implementation of the requests therein. If those illegal resolutions had any value to solve the issue, it should have already done. However, the wisdom has prevailed and writers of those resolutions are now at the negotiating table.

On last speaker’s statement before me, I should add the following:

Israel having a clandestine underground nuclear weapon program can never be an advocate of non-proliferation and indeed with a history full of aggression and violations of all international regulations, including international humanitarian law, this regime is in no position to talk about compliance with international obligations. Israeli child-killer regime should be better worried about the international calls for the trial of Israeli authorities over war crimes they recently committed in Gaza rather than being bothered over a few days delay on the implementation of some voluntary measures of one Member State or the level of enrichment.

Thank you for your attention. 

Vienna

September 2014