Iran Expects PMD Case to Be Fully Resolved by Dec. 15: UN Envoy


Iran Expects PMD Case to Be Fully Resolved by Dec. 15: UN Envoy

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo stressed that Tehran’s so-called PMD (possible military dimension) case should be closed once and for all in a December meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a Tuesday address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the US city of New York, Khoshroo stressed that Iran has been committed to fully implement its voluntary undertakings in good faith contingent upon the same good-faith implementation of all undertakings by the other parties to a recent nuclear accord finalized by Tehran and world powers.

After the final assessment by the Board’s Director General, Iran expects that all past and present issues would be resolved “once and for all” at the upcoming Board of Governor’s meeting on 15 December, he noted.

He further described as a crucial step the July 14 conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA – the text of the nuclear deal), through negotiations based on mutual respect.

It was based on recognition of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and enrichment activities and the simultaneous termination of all provisions of previous Council resolutions, as well as the lifting of Council and unilateral or multilateral nuclear-related sanctions, the Iranian envoy asserted.

That was a fundamental shift in the Council’s approach, he said, but at the same time urged that all previous “politically motivated” resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors should be terminated.

Khoshroo went on to say that the design and implementation of IAEA safeguards must comply with the inalienable rights of NPT States parties and avoid hampering their economic or technological development. 

Concerns about nuclear proliferation should not restrict the inalienable right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as stipulated in the NPT’s article IV, he said.

That had occurred in past years with regard to Iran, which, on the basis of its “firm ideological, strategic and international principles”, had “categorically and consistently rejected weapons of mass destruction and particularly nuclear weapons as obsolete and inhuman, and detrimental to international peace and security,” he emphasized.

Security Council sanctions against Iran, therefore, had been unjust and illegal, and had not changed the country’s consistent policy of observing its NPT obligations, he added.

Iran and the IAEA signed a Road-map on July 14, as part of which, the IAEA is required to finish its investigations about Iran’s nuclear activities and submit a report to the agency’s Board of Governors by December 15.

The Road-map between Iran and the IAEA was signed on the same day that Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached a conclusion on a lasting nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The IAEA has been given the role of verifying Iran’s commitments under the lasting nuclear deal.

The agreement was officially adopted on October 18, and is going to take effect within the next few weeks, after the IAEA releases its final report.

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