E3/EU ministers met today to consider the situation following
Iran's resumption on January 9 of enrichment-related
activity.
Iran's nuclear
activities have been of great concern to the international
community since 2003, when Iran was forced to admit to the
International Atomic Energy Agency that it was building a
secret installation to enrich uranium, which could be used to
produce material for nuclear weapons.
The IAEA Director General at the time found Iran's policy of
concealment had resulted in many breaches of its obligation to
comply with the provisions of its Safeguards Agreement.
Under the IAEA's rules, this
should have been reported to the Security Council then.
We launched our diplomatic initiative because we wanted to
offer an opportunity to Iran to address international
concerns.
Our objective was to give Iran a means to build international
confidence that its nuclear programme was for exclusively
peaceful purposes, and to develop a sound relationship between
Europe and Iran.
Given Iran's
documented record of concealment and deception, the need for
Iran to build confidence has been and continues to be the
heart of the matter. It was Iran's agreement to suspend
all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities while
negotiations were underway that gave us the confidence to
handle the issue within the IAEA framework, rather than refer
it to the Security Council.
We had strong support from the IAEA Board, which repeatedly
urged Iran to suspend these activities and stressed that the
maintenance of full suspension was essential.
Last August, Iran
resumed uranium conversion at Isfahan, in breach of IAEA Board
Resolutions and the commitments she had given us in the Paris
Agreement of November 2004.
The IAEA Board reacted by passing a resolution in September
formally finding that Iran was in non-compliance with its
Safeguards Agreement, and declaring that the history of
concealment of Iran's programme and the nature of its
activities gave rise to questions that were within the
competence of the Security Council.
Since then the IAEA has raised more disturbing questions about
Iran's links with the
AQ Khan network, which helped build Libya and North
Korea's clandestine military nuclear programmes.
Nonetheless, in response to requests from many of our
international partners and despite the major setbacks through
unilateral Iranian actions, we agreed to delay a report to the
Security Council and go the extra mile in search of a
negotiated solution.
We held a round of exploratory talks in Vienna on December 21,
2005, to see if we could agree a basis for resuming
negotiations. We made crystal clear that a resumption of
negotiations would only be possible if Iran refrained from any
further erosion of the suspension.
Iran's decision to
restart enrichment activity is a clear rejection of the
process the E3/EU and Iran have been engaged in for over two
years with the support of the international community.
In addition it
constitutes a further challenge to the authority of the IAEA
and international community. We have, therefore, decided to
inform the IAEA Board of Governors that our discussions with
Iran have reached an impasse.
The Europeans have negotiated in good faith. Last August we
presented the most far-reaching proposals for co-operation
with Europe in the political, security and economic fields
that Iran has received since the Revolution.
These reaffirmed Iran's rights under the NPT and included
European support for a strictly civilian nuclear programme in
Iran, as well as proposals that would have given Iran
internationally guaranteed supplies of fuel for its nuclear
power programme.
But Iran was to refrain from the most sensitive activities
until international confidence was restored. Such a step would
not affect Iran's ability to develop a civil and nuclear power
industry.
We proposed that the agreement be reviewed every ten years.
The Iranian government summarily rejected our proposal, and
all the benefits that would have flowed from it, nor have they
taken up proposals by others.
The Iranian government
now seems intent on turning its back on better relations with
the international community, thereby dismissing the prospect
for expanded economic, technological and political cooperation
with the international community which would bring tremendous
benefits for Iran's young, talented and growing population.
This is not a dispute
between Iran and Europe, but between Iran and the whole
international community. Nor is it a dispute about
Iran's rights under the NPT. It is about Iran's failure to
build the necessary confidence in the exclusively peaceful
nature of its nuclear programme.
Iran continues to
challenge the authority of the IAEA Board by ignoring its
repeated requests and providing only partial co-operation to
the IAEA.
It is important for
the credibility of the NPT and the international
non-proliferation system generally, as well as the stability
of the region, that the international community responds
firmly to this challenge.
We continue to be committed to resolving the issue
diplomatically. We shall be consulting closely with our
international partners in the coming days and weeks. We
believe the time has now come for the Security Council to
become involved to reinforce the authority of IAEA
Resolutions.
We will, therefore, be calling for an Extraordinary IAEA Board
meeting with a view for it to take the necessary action to
that end.
Please Sign MEHR's Petition:
Islamic
Regime of
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