E3 hails Iran’s intention to further strengthen cooperation with IAEA

Britain, France and Germany, the three European signatories to a multilateral 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have hailed Tehran’s encouraging statements on its intention to further strengthen its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a joint statement issued on Friday on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement with Iran delivered to the IAEA Board of Governors at the September 2020 meeting, the E3 said they welcome a joint statement reached between the agency and Iran late last month.

“The statement paves a procedural way forward towards the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the Agency and towards implementation by Iran of its legal obligations to provide access to sites identified by IAEA,” the statement read.

The trio added that they take note of Iran’s cooperation that provided the UN nuclear agency with access to one specified location while the date for access to the second location has been scheduled.

In line with the joint statement, the IAEA has also carried out an additional inventory verification activity at a facility in Iran, they said.

The three European parties to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), called on Iran to fully implement the joint statement and “provide full access to the second site on the date agreed with the Agency.”

At the end of a two-day trip to Tehran by the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Iran and the UN nuclear agency issued a joint statement on August 26 on their agreements and the results of high-level talks between the two sides.

Speaking during his introductory statement to the IAEA's 35-member Board of Governors on Monday, Grossi said the agency's inspectors will visit the second of two sites in Iran later in September for verification purposes.

"Our inspectors took environmental samples which will be analyzed. A complementary access at the second specified location will take place later this month," he added.

Elsewhere in their statement, the E3 said as a matter of Iran’s legally binding safeguards obligations, they call on Tehran to “provide the IAEA with the requested information and clarifications needed to resolve all open safeguards questions, including on the origins of anthropogenic natural uranium particles detected by the Agency at an undeclared location in 2019.”

They emphasized that they are confident about the “robustness and comprehensiveness of standard practice” that the IAEA evaluates all available safeguards-relevant information, including third-party information.

MG