Reply of the Delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran
to the statements by Some European Countries and KSA
Before the First Committee, UNGA 76
New York, 11 October 2021
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Mr. Chair,
I would like to take the floor to exercise my right of reply in response to the baseless allegations made by the representatives of some of the European countries and the KSA regarding my country and we reject them categorically.
On JCPOA, as we stated earlier, the uncontested reality is that so far, Iran has adhered to the JCPOA terms while US and E3 have failed to meet their JCPOA obligations. Iran is committed to the full implementation of JCPOA provided that the other participants live up fully to their commitments and lift all unjust sanctions in a speedy and verifiable manner. Iran’s defensive missile capability is being pursued in line with our inherent rights and international commitments.
It is a fact that during the negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Saudi Arabia, along with the Israeli regime, did its best to derail this process. Their position on the Plan is not surprising, and, following its conclusion and unanimous endorsement by the Security Council through Council resolution 2231 (2015), they have missed no opportunities, including through disseminating disinformation, to seriously undermine the full and effective implementation of the Plan as well as that resolution. They still pursue such policies and practices systematically and in gross violation of their explicit legal obligations under the Charter of the United Nations.
The representative of the KSA is referring to Iran’s nuclear program while it is still implementing an old version of SQPs, thus preventing the IAEA from being able to fully monitor and verify the aforementioned regime about its nuclear program.
On regional security, raising unfounded accusations against the defensive ballistic missile program of Iran is also an attempt to cover up the skyrocketing trend in the military expenditure of Saudi Arabia and its unquenchable appetite for importing deadly arms. However, the relevant figures in this regard are telling and irrefutable. For example, Saudi Arabia was the third largest military spender worldwide in 2018 and the fifth largest spender in 2019. In the past six years, Saudi Arabia has been by far the largest arms importer in the world. It has imported over 12 percent of all arms exported globally from 2015 to 2019 and 11 percent in 2020. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is “expected to remain among the world’s largest arms importers in the coming five years”. These militaristic policies and excessive imports of the most sophisticated weaponry are among the main sources of insecurity and instability in the region.
In fact, the real source of regional insecurity is the massive build-up of foreign forces and military installations, a large number of which are hosted by some regional countries, including Saudi Arabia. The establishment of a significant number of foreign military bases in the Middle East has turned this region into the highest concentration of foreign military installations in the world.
We strongly believe that those European countries that turn blind eye to these policy and actions of Saudi Arabia are accomplice and must be held responsible.