S/PV.5909 Security Council

I thank Ambassador Grauls for his briefing. I shall now give the floor to members of the Security Council.

I would first of all like to congratulate Ambassador Grauls on his assumption of the chairmanship of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). It is an important task, which Ambassador Verbeke performed in an outstanding manner. We have every confidence that Mr. Grauls will do likewise. We assure him of our full cooperation. More than three months have passed since the adoption of resolution 1803 (2008). We are very concerned about indication in the last report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has still not met any of its obligations. In particular, that report indicates that Iran has not appropriately responded to the questions asked of it about one of the most dangerous aspects of its programme: the work on militarization. Since 3 June, Iran has been in violation of resolution 1803 (2008). However, the E3 + 3 have made every effort possible to renew dialogue with Iran. It has now been five years that a series of increasingly generous offers have been made to Iran, without the slightest indication of interest on its part. Nevertheless, tomorrow, Javier Solana and five political directors from the E3 + 3 will, with the support of the United States, visit Tehran to once again present the Iranians with a proposal for negotiations. The ball is now in their court. We very much hope that they will have the wisdom to quickly seize the hand that is being extended to them. Beyond the issue of Iran, we all of us have an individual responsibility to implement resolutions. In that regard, I would like to emphasize that cases of violations have been brought to the attention of the Committee. It is up to everyone to take the necessary measures to ensure that such cases do not happen again. Finally, we hope that, in the future, the Committee will continue to play its full role as guardian of the resolutions and help States to ensure that they fully respect them.

We too thank Ambassador Grauls for his report and welcome him to his new responsibilities as Chairperson of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). The delegation of the United Kingdom will give him its full support. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the significant work undertaken in the Committee since the Council last met, including: first, the updating of the Committee’s guidelines to take into account its responsibilities under resolution 1803 (2008); secondly, the preparation of the single document bringing together in one place the individuals and entities listed under the three resolutions; and, thirdly, in response to the ideas raised in this Chamber by Ambassador Kafando the last time we met, the preparation of the informal guidance paper on reporting to the Committee. We consider resolution 1803 (2008) to be the continuation of the Council’s incremental and proportionate approach to the Iranian nuclear issue, gradually increasing the pressure on Iran to address widely shared concerns about its nuclear programme. That resolution once again reiterates our wish to achieve a negotiated solution. Three steps are required of Iran. The first is that Iran suspend all its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. Iran continues to flout the legally binding Security Council requirement for such a suspension. The second is that Iran implement fully the additional protocol and the additional measures that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has requested. Without that, the IAEA continues to be unable to provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear materials and activities in Iran; nor can it determine whether the nature of Iran’s programme is exclusively peaceful. The third is that Iran resolve outstanding issues of concern to the IAEA by delivering fully on all the issues that remain outstanding under the work plan agreed between it and the Agency. Mr. ElBaradei’s most recent report demonstrated that Iran has failed to make any progress on those three issues. It also set out the information it had about activities with a possible military dimension, including activities associated with the design of a nuclear warhead. The report noted that these activities were a matter of serious concern and that it was critical that Iran clarify them in order to assess the nature of its programme. It is worth recalling that Iran has received a generous and far-reaching offer in return for taking these steps. On 3 March of this year, the Governments of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, the Russian Federation and the United States reiterated their offer of dialogue and engagement. In that statement, the six Governments said, “We call upon Iran to heed the requirements of the United Nations Security Council and the IAEA, including the suspension of its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. “We remain committed to an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and reaffirm our commitment to a dual-track approach. We reconfirm the proposals we presented to Iran in June 2006 and are prepared to further develop them. Our proposals will offer substantial opportunities for political, security and economic benefits to Iran and to the region”. (see S/PV.5848) We remain committed to that approach. This weekend, as our French colleague has noted, Mr. Javier Solana, the European Union’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, will be in Tehran with concrete proposals in that sense. We very much hope that the Government of Iran will meet the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors and this Council and will take up the offer carried by Mr. Solana.

I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the representative of the United States. Three months ago, this Council adopted resolution 1803 (2008) to impose additional sanctions on Iran. These sanctions as well as those adopted earlier by the Council in resolutions 1737 (2006) and 1747 (2007) are designed to discourage and halt Iran’s pursuit of technologies that would provide it with a nuclear-weapons capability. With that in mind, I would like to make five points. First, we welcome the report of the Committee Chairman and are pleased to note the important activities being pursued by the Committee. We welcome the fact that many States have submitted the reports required by the aforementioned resolutions and we encourage all States that have not yet done so to provide their reports to the Committee as soon as possible. We also reiterate the Council’s call upon all States to exercise vigilance over the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all banks domiciled in Iran, in particular with Bank Melli and Bank Saderat and their branches and subsidiaries abroad. Secondly, we note with great concern the 26 May 2008 report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concerning Iran’s continuing non-compliance with resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008). Most disturbing is that Iran continues to defy the Security Council and has not suspended its uranium enrichment- and heavy water-related activities. Instead, Iran has expanded its installation and operation of new centrifuges and is testing advanced centrifuge designs using nuclear material. Iran has also continued the construction of a new IR-40 reactor. Thirdly, long outstanding questions about Iran’s past nuclear activities, including those that indicate Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear warhead, remain unanswered. IAEA Director General ElBaradei stated clearly that Iran must provide “substantive explanations” for these activities and that it is essential that Iran provide all requested information, clarifications and access outlined in the report without further delay. Fourthly, we expect Iran to comply with its international obligations concerning its nuclear activities, including the full and verifiable suspension of its proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities and full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and to implement the Additional Protocols. Only through all of these steps can Iran begin to establish confidence that the nature of its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. Iran must provide to the IAEA full disclosure of any weapons-related work and allow the IAEA to verify that any such work has ceased. Fifthly, we affirm the dual-track strategy on this issue, which is reinforced by the updated P-5+1 package that will be delivered to Iran in the near term and reiterate our belief that a mutually satisfactory negotiated solution remains open to Iran. At the same time, all Member States must implement robustly their obligations under Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008), as well as other pertinent resolutions. The Council should stand ready, in accordance with the stated intention in resolution 1803 (2008), to supplement those sanctions with additional measures. I resume my function as President of the Council. There are no further speakers inscribed on my list. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.