PRESS RELEASE : UK, France, Germany and the US welcome IAEA Board of Governors resolution on Iran [November 2022]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 18 November 2022.

The UK, France, Germany (the E3) and the United States welcome the adoption of a resolution at the IAEA Board of Governors on Iran.

The E3 and US said:

We, the Governments of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, welcome the IAEA Board of Governors’ adoption of a resolution on Iran. This resolution was adopted in response to Iran’s insufficient cooperation with the IAEA on serious and outstanding issues relating to Iran’s legal obligations under its Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement.

This is the second resolution adopted by the IAEA Board of Governors on these matters this year. In doing so, the Board has sent a clear message that it is essential and urgent that Iran fulfils its NPT-required safeguards obligations and take the actions specified without delay.

Iran must provide technically credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles identified at three undeclared locations in Iran and clarify the whereabouts of the related nuclear material and/or contaminated equipment.

The resolution reaffirms the Board’s unwavering support for the IAEA’s longstanding efforts with Iran to resolve these critical matters.

As we have made clear, if Iran does this 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 cooperate with the IAEA in good faith toward closing these outstanding matters so that no further Board action on these issues will be necessary.