09 September 2003
IAEA Board Members Share U.S. Concerns Over Iran
Boucher says Iran has failed to fulfill IAEA requests for information
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States believes that almost all members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors share its grave concerns about Iran's nuclear activities, and agree that Iran must take urgent steps to cooperate fully and answer all outstanding questions.
Speaking at the September 8 State Department briefing in Washington, Boucher noted that the IAEA has provided compelling evidence "regarding Iran's safeguards violations and failures, its ongoing efforts to hide and deny nuclear activities to the IAEA, and its refusal to cooperate fully with inspectors."
According to the spokesman, IAEA Secretary General Mohamed ElBaradei said the information provided to him by Iran had been, in some instances, slow in coming, piecemeal, and inconsistent with what the IAEA had been given previously.
Boucher noted that Dr. ElBaradei has presented three simple requests that Iran has failed to fulfill:
1. Provide a complete list of imported equipment and components believed to have been contaminated with highly enriched uranium;
2. Resolve questions about its testing of gas centrifuges; and
3. Provide complete information on its uranium conversion experiments.
The spokesman also echoed IAEA's call for Iran to bring into force an additional protocol, allow the Agency "prompt access to all sites and locations," and permit it to take environmental samples as needed.
Following is an excerpt from the September 8 State Department briefing:
(begin excerpt)
MR. BOUCHER: We have been working actively with other members of the international community to build support for the strongest possible resolution from the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors in the meeting that they had this week.
There's compelling evidence that the International Atomic Energy Agency has provided regarding Iran's safeguards violations and failures, its ongoing efforts to hide and deny nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and its refusal to cooperate fully with inspectors.
From our discussions to date, we believe that almost all members of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board share our grave concerns about Iran's activities, fully support the International Atomic Energy Agency's ongoing efforts to uncover the truth of Iran's programs, and agree that Iran must urgently take steps to cooperate fully and answer all outstanding questions.
The meeting began today. As of this moment, the Board has not yet discussed Iran. However, Dr. ElBaradei's opening statement today to the Board, which is available on their website, he acknowledged that information and access from Iran were in some instances slow in coming, piecemeal and reactive -- piecemeal and reactive -- and at times the information provided has been inconsistent with that given previously.
In his opening remarks today, the Director General also called on Iran to do several things: one, to provide a complete list of all imported equipment and components stated to have been contaminated with highly enriched uranium; resolve questions regarding the conclusion that the process of testing of gas centrifuges must have been conducted; and to provide complete information regarding the conduct of uranium conversion experiments.
He also urged Iran to move rapidly toward the conclusion and bringing into force an additional protocol, and suggested that even during the interim period before an additional protocol is brought into force, Iran should allow the Agency prompt access to all sites and locations that the Agency deems necessary to visit, as well as allowing environmental samples to be taken as needed.
I would say we agree with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency on the many things that Iran needs to do, and as I pointed out, I think there's considerable consensus within the Board that Iran needs to support the efforts of the Agency to uncover the truth about the program, and take steps to cooperate fully and answer all questions. So we'll be working with other members of the Board to try to get a resolution that makes that clear in the strongest possible terms.
QUESTION: Did you put forward a resolution and then pull it back?
MR. BOUCHER: No, we put forward a draft text last week. We then worked with others on the Board to work on that text. There were a number of meetings, in Vienna as well as meetings that Under Secretary Bolton had in Paris with his counterparts, because many of them are in Paris for proliferation security. They worked on that draft, and we came up with a slightly revised version of the draft that was acceptable to, it seemed, many of the governments we were talking to. So that will be the subject of discussion in Vienna.
QUESTION: On the IAEA meeting, there was a wire story last Friday suggesting that the United States was not going to be able to persuade the IAEA to send this issue to the Security Council. Is it still the U.S. desire that the IAEA forward the issue of Iran to the United Nations Security Council?
MR. BOUCHER: It is still our view that this is a matter that needs to be taken up at the appropriate time by the Security Council and needs to be sent at the appropriate time to the Security Council. We've made that view known to other governments in terms of our consultations over the past week or so. And as I said, the work that was done last Friday in Vienna and by Under Secretary Bolton in Paris to come up with the strongest possible resolution, is looking especially at the steps that Iran needs to take to correct the problems that Iran has created, and the deficiencies of information.
When and how that will lead to possible referral to the Security Council, I think may not be addressed in this particular resolution. But the emphasis in that resolution, as we believe it should be right now, is on the steps that Iran needs to take to rectify the situation, and to make up for all the deficiencies and lack of information.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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