Madam President,

I would like to thank Under Secretary General DiCarlo, Ambassador Žbogar and Ambassador Lambrinidis for their valuable briefings and continuous efforts to implement United Nations Security Council resolution 2231.

For two decades, this Council has been deliberating on the Iranian nuclear programme. We find ourselves at a particularly difficult juncture today. France, Germany and the United Kingdom have consistently made every effort to find a diplomatic solution with Iran and will continue to do so, but the Iranian nuclear programme remains a threat to international peace and security.

Last Friday, the E3 Foreign Ministers and the EU High Representative met with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva to call upon Iran to engage in negotiations. We will continue our joint diplomatic effort to address all concerns associated with Iran’s nuclear programme.

We have always been clear: Iran must not have a nuclear weapon, it can only be a non-nuclear-weapon state under the NPT and must respect its nuclear safeguards obligations. Our efforts, conducted jointly with many partners around the globe, have aimed at preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. We successfully concluded the JCPoA, which put robust and verifiable restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme and would have provided the entire international community with confidence that Iran’s nuclear activities remain exclusively peaceful.

Throughout the last years, we witnessed an expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme far beyond Iran’s commitments under the JCPoA. As of last month, Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile were 40 times higher than allowed under the JCPoA limits. Iran continued to enrich uranium to up to 60%, which lacks any plausible civilian purpose, in an underground facility. It stopped implementing almost all of its key transparency commitments it subscribed to under the JCPoA as well.

The E3 have always pursued diplomacy to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear proliferation crisis. In 2021 and 2022 we negotiated in good faith to bring the US back into the JCPoA and Iran to full compliance with its commitments. To no avail: Iran twice refused a fair proposal put on the table by the Coordinator, and decided to further escalate its nuclear programme to the level we all know. In conjecture with Iran’s failure to comply with its legally binding safeguards obligations – an assessment that was confirmed by the Board of Governor’s resolution last month – Iran’s nuclear activities have remained a threat to regional and global security.

Iran’s nuclear programme continues to pose serious proliferation concerns: We are particularly concerned by any possible relocation of nuclear material since the recent military strikes. We reiterate that as a member of the NPT and its nuclear safeguards regime, Iran is obliged to declare and put all nuclear material located in Iran under IAEA safeguards. Iran must fully cooperate with the Agency and refrain from threats against its personnel and DG Grossi himself, whose professional work we commend. In this regard we are alerted by the initiative in the Iranian parliament to suspend cooperation with the Agency as well as by Iran’s deliberations to withdraw from the NPT.

In closing, let me welcome the ceasefire between Israel and Iran announced a yesterday. Germany joins the calls on all sides to respect it and to re-engage in diplomacy.

Thank you.