With the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful Mr. President, At the outset, I would like to congratulate you for the assumption of this post at such an important juncture of time. I assure Your Excellency the full cooperation of my delegation in order to make the conference a success. Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates, The Member States are expected to review the important developments since the previous General Conference and to express their expectations as well as tangible proposals in order to promote various applications of nuclear energy in all over the world, bearing in mind the global scientific, economic, political developments. The status quo of the Agency is not satisfactory. One should not loose sight of the fact that the IAEA came into being half a century ago with the promotional objective, as stipulated in the Statute, and not with regulatory and verification mandates. The Agency has in some occasions been instrumentally used, with political motivations, by few western countries, specifically by the United States, by interfering in the activities of the Secretariat, undermining its authority and its impartiality. Dealing with Iran’s nuclear issues during recent years the Agency has gone beyond its statutory mandate by turning the voluntary measures into a legal obligation, entering into the domain of conventional military activities thus threatening national security under the pretext of the verifications and at the request of a few western members of the Board of Governors. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not permit this trend to continue.
The Islamic Republic of Iran urges all like minded Member States, which constitute the majority, to exercise maximum vigilance with respect to the present trend of diversion from the spirit and the letter of the Statute. Mr. President,
Mr. President, I have to recall and put on record that Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was supposed to start its operation almost 3 decades ago, but due to irresponsible policy of the western supplier, not committed to its contractual and legal obligation, it neither finished the project nor compensated the huge damage. Mr. President, One of the other issues of concerns is the unavailability of assured nuclear fuel for the power plants. Lack of any legally binding instrument for assurances of supply is a reality that nobody can deny. No one could take a risk to invest billions of dollars for a nuclear power plant when there is no guarantee for the fuel, which only costs a small amount compared to the capital investment of a nuclear power plant. In fact this is one of the main differences with fossil power plants. Mr. President, Considering the confidence deficit vis-à-vis potential suppliers of the nuclear fuel, the Government had to fulfil the expectation of its people translated into law by their representatives in parliament. Thus the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had to embark on indigenous enrichment plant for low enriched uranium to fulfil part of the fuel requirement of its light water nuclear power plants. For the same reason of lack of confidence on potential foreign suppliers, Iran took serious steps in all parts of fuel cycle, starting from uranium mines, such as Saghand and Gachin mine, uranium conversion industrial plant i.e. the UCF, Uranium enrichment, Natanz Enrichment Plant, and the fuel fabrication plant which is almost at its final stage of construction. Mr. President, During recent years some proposals have been raised on multilateral nuclear fuel supply. A critical review of almost all of them show that no attention is paid to the concerns of developing countries bearing in mind their historical deprivation from any access to nuclear technology and nuclear fuel. Almost all of them lack feasible practical non-discriminatory criteria in line of the Agency’s Statute. Any future elaboration on multilateral approach to nuclear fuel supply has to take the principle of full participation of all Member States in negotiation and decision by consensus and without prejudice to the inalienable right of Member States to choose an indigenous national fuel cycle option. The sentiment and concerns eloquently reflected in the positions of the countries belonging to the NAM and G-77 & China has the full support of my country. Mr. President, The Islamic Republic of Iran has been fully committed to principles of non-proliferation and disarmament. On behalf of my Government I declare the serious concerns regarding non-compliance of nuclear weapon states with their obligation under the article VI of the NPT and the spirit and letter of the Agency’s Statute. The proliferation of nuclear weapons in other countries is the result of such violations as well as the double standard policies vis-à-vis the parties to the NPT. The IAEA has to report to the international community the latest situation vis-à-vis the non-compliance of the United States, United Kingdom and France with regard to undertakings under article I of NPT i.e. not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons directly or indirectly and not anyway assist, encourage, or induce them to do so. The full un-interrupted cooperation with and assistance in nuclear weapon technology of these countries to the Zionist regime has made it able to acquire nuclear weapons. During the last General Conference and subsequent meetings of the Board of Governors, my delegation requested the Director General to report on nuclear capabilities of Israel by sending inspectors there as a fact finding mission. The General Conference as the highest authority of the Agency has to mandate the Secretariat to investigate and report as soon as possible its findings. Shameful silence of the western powers on the acknowledgment of the possession of nuclear weapons by the Zionist regime of Israel, its military aggression against a Member States, has left no doubt about the urgent need for a reform of the United Nations particularly the United Nations Security Council, as well as appropriate measures regarding the recent negative developments in the IAEA such as the poisonous environment governing the Board of Governors. Mr. President, Following the most robust inspections in Iran the Director General has continuously reported to the whole world that the IAEA has not found any evidence of diversion of nuclear material and activities to prohibited purposes. While the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to continue it cooperation with the IAEA in accordance with the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, I declare that the illegal and unjustified engagement of the United Nations Security Council in Iran’s nuclear issue which has to only be dealt within the IAEA, being the only pertinent technical international organization, has and shall have no effect on the national determination in pursuing peaceful nuclear activities including enrichment. The resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on punitive measures such as sanctions aiming at depriving the Great Nation of Iran shall strengthen its determination to pursue its righteous path and they would surely complicate further the situation. The resolutions of the UNSC shall also create negative environment and constraints for expected constructive negotiations which the Islamic Republic of Iran has initiated and always advised other parties to start without any precondition and without further delay. Thank you for your attention.
|
