IAEA Board of Governors Meeting
Statement by HE Dr Brendon Hammer, Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA
Agenda Item 5 (Iran): Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015)
11 June 2019
Chair,
Australia attaches high importance to the Agency’s verification and monitoring activities in Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
And we thank the Director General and Secretariat for the 31 May 2019 report contained in GOV/2019/21and for the technical briefing of 6 June.
Australia continues to support the JCPOA – it promotes nuclear non-proliferation and reinforces a rules based international system.
But Iran must remain compliant with the deal.
Chair,
Australia has been following recent developments closely.
We urge Iran to exercise restraint and to comply with its commitments to keep the JCPOA intact.
We are deeply concerned by President Rouhani’s 8 May announcement that Iran plans to stop complying with some elements of the JCPOA.
We also note the update on Iran’s enrichment R&D activity contained in the Director General’s 31 May report, and the report’s advice that technical discussions related to this are ongoing.
These are, of course, matters for the Joint Commission to consider and address. But we encourage frank and constructive dialogue, and again call for full compliance.
Chair,
We note that the Agency has continued – since implementation of the JCPOA – to make evaluations to determine that there are no undeclared nuclear activities or materials in Iran.
Australia values the rigour and professionalism that the Agency has brought to this task.
Moreover, we fully respect the Agency’s independence in making these evaluations, and in determining how to assess, and whether, and how, to action any relevant information that it acquires.
Thank you.