IAEA Board of Governors Meeting
Agenda Item 7: Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015)
7 June 2022
Chair
Australia continues to support the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and its non-proliferation objectives. We remain hopeful that efforts to find a mutually acceptable way back to the operation of the agreement will yet prove successful.
The successful conclusion and, for a time, operation of the JCPOA was an important demonstration of the power of diplomacy to address hard security issues. We hope the agreement, its security dividends and its normative power will not be lost.
Chair
Australia notes the steps made by the Agency in replacing storage media in JCPOA-related cameras and in installing surveillance cameras at Natanz, where the Islamic Republic of Iran has relocated centrifuge rotor tube and bellow production machines from the Karaj complex. It is critical that all Agency data from all Agency cameras and other monitoring equipment installed for activities in relation to the JCPOA be made available to the Agency.
Australia remains deeply concerned by the unchecked production and growth of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, as documented in the report. We note with particular concern the Agency’s estimate that Iran’s total stockpile of enriched uranium continues to grow and is now at least 18 times greater than the amount permitted under the JCPOA.
The continued growth of Iran’s stockpile of uranium in uranium hexafluoride enriched up to 60 per cent U-235 is also deeply concerning. We take note that the Agency has now verified that 1.6 kg of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent U-235 is in the form of mini-plates. We reiterate our call for Iran to explain its rationale for fabricating these mini-plates.
Chair
Australia once again calls on Iran to reverse all steps away from the JCPOA and to recommit itself, immediately, to full compliance with all of its obligations under the terms of the agreement.
We further urge Iran to return promptly to full implementation of the Additional Protocol and other JCPOA transparency commitments.
Australia fully supports the Director General’s extraordinary and commendable efforts to preserve and maintain the agency’s JCPOA verification and monitoring activities and the Agency’s efforts to retrieve critical safeguards data in Iran.
We request that the Director General continues to report further developments on these matters and ask that GOV/2022/24 be made public.