First Committee of the 78th United Nations General Assembly
Right of Reply
Submitted by
The I.R. of Iran against the USA
2 October 2023
In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
I would like to take this opportunity to exercise my delegation’s right of reply against the unacceptable statement by the US delegation against my country and we reject those wrong statement. The fact is that the most robust and uninterrupted verification and monitoring activities of the IAEA are carried out in Iran’s nuclear facilities. On this basis, it is expected that such continuous and deep cooperation in good faith by the Islamic Republic of Iran with the IAEA is not overlooked.
Five years after the unlawful withdrawal of the US from the JCPOA, and despite repeated confessions by the US authorities of failure and ineffectiveness of sanctions in impeding the expansion of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, the US government has not yet stopped the imposition of illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
There should be clear distinction between legal obligation of Member States under their respective safeguards agreements and their voluntary undertakings. The verification and monitoring activities related to the JCPOA have been voluntary and in no way are linked to the CSA. Therefore, it is totally baseless and unacceptable to try to repeatedly link them to alleged issues. The Islamic Republic of Iran once again asserts that the present extensive cooperation with the IAEA should not be taken as granted and should not be negatively affected by following short sighted political agendas.
In conclusion, as already demonstrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, we continue to fulfill our commitments as per the CSA (INFCIRC/214) and make our best efforts to enable the Agency to conduct smoothly its verification activities in Iran. All Iran’s nuclear material and activities have been completely declared and verified by the IAEA. The Islamic Republic of Iran, with the highest number of safeguards inspections of its peaceful nuclear program, has an exemplary record of cooperation with the IAEA.