In a statement to the Meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on Verification and Monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in Light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) on Wednesday, he slammed US withdrawal from the JCPOA, saying that it has violated all its commitments under the JCPOA and has relentlessly pressured, bullied and intimidated others.
Full text of his statement reads as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the compassionate, the Merciful"
Madam Chairperson,
Mr. Deputy Director General,
Excellencies,
Dear Colleagues,
My delegation takes note of the Report issued by the Director General of the IAEA. While appreciating the DG and his staff for their professional work, I would like to put on record the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as follows:
1 - It is indeed a sad irony that this meeting is convened with the request of the United States, the same regime which the current situation is the outcome of its menace outlaw behavior. It is worth mentioning that the recent developments have no connection to safeguard related issues and the mandate of the Board of Governors. Issues related to the implementation of the JCPOA will be deliberated in its prescribed mechanism.
2- The United States’ foreign policy and behavior is replete with paradox and dissimulation which increases distrust and brings discredit upon it. The fact that the United States which has withdrawn from the JCPOA and has spared no effort to destroy it, has requested for this meeting to demand the implementation of the same deal, is one of the most striking manifestation of this paradox.
3 - The United States has not only unilaterally withdrawn from the JCPOA, violated United Nation Security Council Resolution 2231, and infringed all its commitments under the JCPOA, but also has relentlessly pressured, bullied and intimidated others, including sovereign States and private entities to follow suit.
4 - Only during past year, the US imposed 20 major unilateral extraterritorial sanctions, which contradicts international law, against my country. In this time, the US sanctioned former Governor of Central Bank of Iran, revoked all General Licenses that were issued due to the JCPOA commitments, reintroduced all sanctions that were lifted due to the JCPOA commitments, including in oil and gas sector designated over 700 persons and entities including those who had been removed from sanctions list due to the JCPOA commitments sanctioned Iran’s Iron, Steel, Aluminum and Copper Sector and sanctioned Iran’s petrochemical sector which have caused unjust suffering of ordinary people.
5 - These sanctions, especially the ones on financial and banking system, bring hardship even on humanitarian activities, let alone the normal business relations. They limit access to necessary medicine and pharmaceutical products and prevent transfer of humanitarian aids in time of disaster. Inability of humanitarian organizations and Iranian expatriates to transfer their contributions to Iran during the recent floods is a clear example of this fact. Even, the United States didn't implement the provisional measures indicated by the ICJ on 3 October 2018, rather imposed more unilateral sanctions against Iran, aggravating the situation more in defiance to the Court order.
6 - Needless to say that the United States of America is in the forefront of imposing exterritorial unilateral sanctions and has spared no efforts to resort to trade sanctions, interrupt financial and investment flows, freeze assets, travel bans, to name just a few, in order to impose its will over another States. Acting as a self-declared global police, it is trampling on every international law and norms.
7 - This unlawful behavior is neither legitimate nor legal, and should not be accepted by the international community. Due to costly and predictable consequences of sanctions, they should be seen as weapons of warfare and means of aggression. Economic Sanctions are, in fact, collective punishment of the ordinary people, contrary to the objectives and purposes of human rights, and should be considered as crimes against humanity.
8 - The United States has not only prevented others from implementing their commitments fully, but also, including through revoking nuclear waivers, hampered Iran’s implementation of its own commitments under the deal.
9 - The United States has adopted and implemented the “maximum pressure” policy, while calling for negotiation, which is another sign of its paradoxical approach. Apparently, this administration has yet to understand Iranian culture which rejects threat, insolence and pressure. The United States has to abandon the doomed to fail policy of pressure, threat and sanction.
Madam Chairperson,
10 - In this context, putting the name of our Supreme Leader, and announcing intention of the US to designate Iran’s foreign minister who negotiated the JCPOA, which is the major part of the UNSC 2231, the same resolution under which the IAEA has a mandate of verification and issues reports, is more as a political action by the US, but it marks the administration's bafflement and its abnormal behavior.
11 - This sadistic tendency of the US to use unilateral illegal sanctions as an instrument for coercing sovereign states and private entities and imposing economic terrorism on them should come to an end.
12 - All the above mentioned, took place, while, Iran exercised maximum restraint and patience and fully implemented its commitments under the deal, which has been verified by 15 reports of the IAEA’s Director General. Furthermore, unlike the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran acted responsibly and resorted to civilized dispute resolution mechanisms incorporated in the deal including its remedial provisions, which led to the JCPOA’s ministerial Joint commission meeting on July 6, 2018.
13 - In the statement of the Ministerial Joint Commission, the ministers explicitly affirmed that “the lifting of sanctions, including the economic dividends arising from it, constitutes an essential part of the JCPOA” and underlined their commitment to seek “practical solutions in order to maintain the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran”. Regrettably, mainly due to the United States’ constant obstruction, disruption and sabotage, no consequential practical outcome has been achieved, and the issues arising from the unilateral withdrawal of the US, remained unresolved.
14 - Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran left with no choice but to exercise its rights under remedial provisions of the deal particularly, paragraphs 26 and 36, in order to re-establish the long missing balance in the reciprocal commitments of the JCPOA. Even in doing so, the Islamic Republic of Iran applied prudence, in order to give more time to diplomacy and goodwill efforts, and sequenced its remedial actions. At this stage, those steps didn’t include safeguards related commitments, voluntary implementation of Additional Protocol, and our cooperation with the Agency, bearing in mind that the last two are the direct outcome of the JCPOA.
15 - I would like to reaffirm that Iran’s decision is fully consistent with the JCPOA and is taken in order to safeguard it from the destructive behavior of the United States and failure of EU/E3 to take any meaningful step to implement their commitments under the JCPOA and those made after the US unlawful withdrawal and its launch of economic war against the Iranian people. We recommend EU/E3 to express their deep concern on the withdrawal and illegal actions of the US, rather decisions made by Iran to restore the lost balance to the JCPOA.
16 - The Islamic Republic of Iran is resolved to continue to support the JCPOA in good faith and in constructive atmosphere, as long as all the participants fully observe their commitments. The Islamic Republic of Iran remains prepared to resume full implementation of the JCPOA commensurate with the implementation of the commitments by all participants in the JCPOA and those made by the Joint Commission since 8 May 2018 (US unilateral withdrawal from the deal).
Responses to some allegations
Madam Chairperson,
1 - Some repetitive irrelevant unfounded allegations were made by a few delegations to which my delegation has reacted, in full detail, in previous meetings of the Board. Since those allegations are not related to the mandate of this forum, I do not intend to repeat the responses, but, I would like to emphasize on the fact that, repetition of unfounded baseless accusations and allegations does not magically authenticate them.
2 - I would like to reiterate once again in this forum that, Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes as it was constantly reaffirmed by IAEA's DG reports. This program will be continued based on our needs and country development plans.
Enrichment is an integral part of this program as it is the right of any state party to the NPT. This right has not been granted by a single country to be revoked by it.
3 - Our advice to our neighbors, namely Saudi Arabia and UAE is a very simple one; instead of raising irrelevant issues in this forum to satisfy political purposes, try to apply a minimal fraction of the transparency measures that Iran applies to its nuclear program, to your programs. We particularly advise them to fully and completely accept the IAEA verification mechanisms’ and stop massacring innocent people in Yemen.
4 - On Israeli regime, I have to admit that words come short, describing the extent of its hypocrisy. Israel, talking about adhering to nonproliferation mechanisms, is like mafia talking about adhering to laws against organized crimes. The regime which is not member to any disarmament and nonproliferation regime, has developed all categories of weapons of mass destruction, has frequently invaded its neighbors and has shed the blood of Palestinian innocent people is in no position to preach others.
5 - I do not want to teach or preach here on international relations; however, let me address a few instances which might lead us to a common understanding about the true nature of the US behavior throughout the world:
* It is the US who has the nuclear weapons, under the pretext of an insurance for its national security, used it, and is threatening to use it as a warfare;
* It is the US who has been a long-standing obstacle in the establishment of a region free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East by granting a blanket support to the Israeli regime;
* It is the US who created and supported the radicals and terrorists in the Middle East;
* It is the US who imposed utmost unilateral sanctions against others as a means of political extorsions;
* It is the US who invaded a number of countries in all corners of the world simply for political purposes;
* It is the US who overthrew a number of political systems throughout the world through direct or indirect interventions;
* It is the US who is by far the highest arms supplier to different volatile regions, especially with dictators at the expense of sacrificing its so called values;
* It is the US who has hundreds of military bases throughout the world, including by deploying tactical nuclear weapons;
* It is the US who has military presence in the Persian Gulf region thousands of miles away from its mainland, provoking tensions and causing instability;
* It is the US which is isolated while all the international community reject its unilateralism and sanction policy and support multi-lateralism.
These are all a slight glimpse of our real life, while on the other side of the story, Iran has never sought to acquire WMDs, has been the victim of the use of such weapons, has never attacked a country in the whole life-time of the US existence; is a main driver of stabilization in the region; has been the victim of state and non-state terrorism, and is at the forefront of combating terrorism just to name few.
I thank you Madam Chairperson."
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