On Tuesday 4 June, the European Union “strongly” urged Iran to “reverse its alarming nuclear trajectory” and return to its nuclear non-proliferation commitments without further delay, expressing its deep concern at the expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme.
“Iran is gravely departing from its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commitments and irreversibly gaining knowledge”, the EU stressed in a statement to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It highlighted particular concern over Iran’s continued accumulation of highly enriched uranium and the expansion of its nuclear enrichment infrastructure. According to the United Nations, Iran has substantially increased its nuclear stockpile, including a particularly large increase of 60% in material.
The EU has therefore explained that it expects Iran to complete the installation of surveillance and monitoring equipment and to grant the Agency unhindered access to their data. For more than 3 years, the IAEA has been unable to carry out several key JCPOA-related verification and monitoring activities.
The EU also urged Tehran to return to the provisional implementation of the Additional Protocol, to ratify it and to resume implementation of all JCPOA-related verification and monitoring activities. “This, together with full implementation of the legally binding Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and modified Code 3.1, (on new nuclear facilities) is essential to help building international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme”, it added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)