Statement by the Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on the Iranian Nuclear Program
Madam President,
We would like to thank UN Deputy Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo and Security Council facilitator for the implementation of Resolution 2231, Permanent Representative of Slovenia Samuel Žbogar. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Slovenian colleagues on the unanimous adoption of the facilitator’s biannual report, and look forward to their continued efforts to ensure the functioning of the “2231 format” until its scheduled completion in October 2025.
We’ve listened to head of the EU delegation Stavros Lambrinidis.
Madam President,
In the early hours of June 13, a UN Member State and an NPT participant was subjected to unprovoked aggression, and the entire world found itself teetering on the brink of a major nuclear catastrophe.
The Russian Federation strongly condemns the attacks on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including its peaceful nuclear infrastructure, which is under IAEA safeguards. The actions of the United States and Israel directly violated the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 487 and 2231 that we are discussing today, as well as the IAEA Statute and relevant resolutions of the Agency's General Conference. These attacks directly and dangerously encroach on the authority of the NPT, in particular on Iran's right, guaranteed under Article IV of the Treaty, to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, including uranium enrichment; thus, these attacks deliver a painful blow to the non-proliferation regime as a whole. And all these actions were taken by two states, one of which is a depositary of the NPT, while the other has for decades refused to accede to this crucial element of international security and subject its nuclear activities to IAEA safeguards.
Incidentally, we are somewhat surprised by Israel's request to participate in our meeting on the agenda item “non-proliferation.” We would like to hope that this decision may set the stage for the country's future accession to the NPT, which the entire world would love to see.
Colleagues,
Attacks on Iran’s infrastructure, including its nuclear fuel cycle facilities, pose a real threat of serious radiological consequences that could affect not only the people of Iran, but the entire Middle East.
Unfortunately, all this happened not even with tacit consent, but with the endorsement of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which still consider themselves full-fledged parties to the JCPOA. Their assurances of being committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program always lacked credibility, but currently it is simply impossible to take them seriously. Judge for yourself: first, these countries deliberately refused to uphold their obligations under the nuclear deal, failing to create the necessary conditions for generating economic returns from the lifting of European sanctions against Iran, which were in effect until 2015. Then they followed suit of the US, which withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, and reimposed (just as Washington did) their unilateral sanctions on Tehran, thereby ruling out any prospects for a full-fledged restoration of the JCPOA, to which our Iranian colleagues have repeatedly expressed their openness.
Simultaneously, Berlin, London, and Paris attempted to portray Iran's legitimate retaliatory measures, which they themselves (i.e., Berlin, London, and Paris) had provoked, as a prove of the supposed “Iranian nuclear threat.” They repeatedly attempted to nullify Iran's constructive cooperation with the IAEA Secretariat, which included efforts to settle unresolved issues. And even despite that, Iran remained and remains the most rigorously inspected IAEA state. And Director General’s reports clearly indicate the lack of proliferation risks. Let us emphasize: nowhere in the IAEA's reports is there any mention of the conversion of nuclear material accumulated in the Islamic Republic of Iran for undeclared and military purposes. In other words, the IAEA has not found any evidence of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Therefore, all assertions by Western delegations to the contrary are falsehoods meant for an audience that has either not read those reports or does not understand the issue.
The cynicism and hypocrisy of the Western states reached its peak on June 12. On that day, the IAEA Board of Governors – egged on by Western countries – adopted yet another resolution on Iran, which was pretentious and divorced from reality. Immediately afterwards, Israel launched strikes against Iran's peaceful nuclear sites. A week later, sovereign Iranian territory was attacked by the US. And as if to confirm that this move had been agreed upon in advance, the UK and France, who claim that they champion diplomacy, rushed to defend the actions by West Jerusalem and Washington.
As a result, last Sunday we witnessed yet another attempt to legitimize the use of force in circumvention of the UN Charter and strikes against peaceful nuclear facilities in violation of the IAEA Statute and all norms of nuclear safety and security. And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as we have already mentioned, did not hesitate to cynically declare that Israel is “doing the dirty work” for Europeans – and these are the actual remarks of the head of government of a state party to the JCPOA.
Let us not forget that West Jerusalem began its operation just two days before another round of Iranian-American talks on nuclear issues, mediated by Oman, with the clear intention to sabotage the process.
Against this backdrop, the Western “trio” even has the audacity to demand from Tehran – not from Israel and the US but from Tehran who is the victim of aggression – to return to the negotiating table. If our British, French, and German colleagues continue to threaten to launch the mechanism for restoring anti-Iran sanctions enshrined in UNSC resolution 2231, we would like to remind them that there are no political, legal, or procedural grounds for doing so. Berlin, London, and Paris have chronically violated the aforementioned resolution and the JCPOA; therefore, they have no right any more to resort to the instruments provided for therein, while the US has not had this right in principle since it withdrew from the agreement. No matter how much they would like to claim otherwise, the Vienna dispute resolution mechanism has never been activated. However, the UK, France, and Germany have no moral right even to mention the possibility of using this snapback mechanism. It is their actions that have betrayed diplomacy and triggered the current situation.
Madam President,
Special responsibility in this regard lies with the IAEA and its Secretariat. In light of Israel and the US disrupting the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, which is based on the NPT, Director General Grossi and his colleagues must strictly adhere to their mandate, as well as resolutions 444 and 533 adopted by IAEA General Conference. The IAEA leadership should not content itself with vague language and fragmented information, but rather they should provide detailed reports on the attacks carried out on Iranian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards. At the same time, it is essential to call a spade a spade, and directly indicate who exactly carried out targeted attacks that clearly violated the UN Charter, the IAEA Statute, UN Security Council resolutions, and the Agency's General Conference resolutions. Unfortunately, we have already seen what happens when the IAEA Director General, in addition to objective facts and statistics, includes ambiguous evaluative judgments in his reports. And it is these judgements that are being used by a certain group of countries to justify unprovoked aggression.
Madam President,
The issues surrounding Iran's nuclear program can only be resolved through diplomacy, within the framework of negotiated solutions based on international law and the principles of equal and indivisible security. The Russian Federation has consistently supported the search for a peaceful solution to address concerns surrounding Iran's nuclear program that would be acceptable to all parties and the international community as a whole. In this regard, the UN Security Council bears a great responsibility and is obliged to take the necessary measures. This is precisely the goal of the UNSC draft resolution proposed by Russia along with its Chinese and Pakistani partners. Today, we are proposing to our colleagues on the Council an updated text that takes into account recent developments and aims to bring about a lasting ceasefire with the Security Council overseeing its implementation through appropriate reporting by the Secretary-General.
The JCPOA and resolutions 2231 adopted in 2015 demonstrated that the international community at that time rejected the military approach and made a clear choice in favor of diplomacy. Now we must make same choice, and without delay.
Thank you.
