France, Germany and the UK reiterate commitment to
finding a diplomatic solution to bring Iran back to full
compliance with the JCPoA
We, the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United
Kingdom, share fundamental common security interests, along with
our European partners. One of them is upholding the nuclear
non-proliferation regime, and ensuring that Iran never develops a
nuclear weapon. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA)
plays a key role in this respect.
Together, we have stated unequivocally our regret and concern at
the decision by the United States to withdraw from the JCPoA and
to re-impose sanctions on Iran. Since May 2018, we have worked
tirelessly to preserve the agreement.
As E3, we have fully upheld our JCPoA commitments, including
sanctions-lifting as foreseen under the terms of the agreement.
In addition we have gone beyond the commitments required by the
agreement to support legitimate trade with Iran, including
through INSTEX, which is fully operational and facilitating
transactions.
Since 2019, Iran has taken nuclear measures contrary to its
commitments under the JCPoA. We are deeply concerned by those
actions, which seriously undermine the non-proliferation benefits
of the agreement. That is the reason why the E3 initiated the
JCPoA’s Dispute Resolution Mechanism on 14 January, in good faith
and in hope of finding a diplomatic way forward, preserving the
agreement and bringing Iran back to full compliance with its
commitments under the JCPoA.
We urge Iran to pursue substantial discussions and actions in
coordination with us and the other remaining JCPoA participants
in this regard. To this end, the E3 reaffirm they are ready to
engage in a meaningful and realistic approach and await a
constructive Iranian response. We will seek a ministerial meeting
to urge Iran to cooperate and to take stock of where we stand in
the DRM process.
We also note with grave concern that despite the IAEA’s
continuous efforts, Iran has denied the access requested by the
Agency for many months, which prevents the Agency from fulfilling
its mandate, and risks seriously undermining the global
safeguards system if no progress is made.
At the initiative of the E3, a resolution was adopted with a very
strong majority at the latest IAEA Board of Governors. We commend
the IAEA for its work in verifying Iran’s safeguards obligations,
and call on Iran to cooperate in a timely and complete manner
with the IAEA and to grant access to sites as requested by the
Agency.
The E3 remain committed to fully implementing Resolution 2231 by
which the JCPoA has been endorsed in 2015. However, we believe
that the planned lifting of the UN conventional arms embargo
established by Resolution 2231 next October would have major
implications for regional security and stability. We recall that
the EU embargoes on conventional arms exports and missile
technology will remain in force until 2023. We wish to address
the issue in close coordination with Russia and China as
remaining participants to the JCPOA, as well as with all other
Security Council Members, as well as other key stakeholders. We
will be guided by these objectives: upholding the authority and
integrity of the UN Security Council and working toward regional
security and stability.
We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN
sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the
UNSC. We would not support such a decision which would be
incompatible with our current efforts to preserve the JCPoA.
We are convinced that we must address shared concerns about
Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile program and its
destabilising regional activities in the long term. To this end,
we continue to believe that the strategy of maximum pressure will
not effectively serve this goal, and instead remain committed to
holding Iran to account, while pursuing meaningful diplomacy and
dialogue.
We remain committed to the JCPoA and, in order to preserve it,
urge Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with the agreement
and return to full compliance without delay. We reaffirm our
readiness to engage substantively with Iran.
