Yesterday evening, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued its Director General's quarterly report on the implementation by Iran of its safeguards agreement with the IAEA and the Security Council resolutions.
The Agency highlights Iran's continuation of sensitive activities in violation of its international obligations as well as Iran's lack of cooperation with the Agency with respect to resolving the outstanding issues associated with the possible military dimension of the Iranian nuclear program.
In its resolution of November 2011, the Board of Governors had called for the Agency and Iran to intensify their dialogue in order to urgently resolve the outstanding issues associated with the possible military dimension of the Iranian nuclear program. France deeply regrets that despite all the efforts made it was not possible to achieve "any concrete results" because of Iran's failure to respond to the Agency's questions.
France condemns the activities being carried out by Iran at the Parchin site, which lead the Agency to conclude that its ability to verify disturbing information "has been compromised" and that its ability to "conduct effective verification will be significantly hampered" if it ever gains access to the site.
The installation of a significant number of new centrifuges at the Fordow plant is also a cause for concern, while Iran continues, in defiance of its obligations, to enrich uranium at 3.5% and at 20%.
We again urge Iran to make concrete gestures to show its willingness to meet the demands of the international community, to cooperate fully and without delay with the IAEA in order to shed light on the unresolved issues and to put an end to the activities that compromise the Agency's work. We also urge it to suspend all of the sensitive activities being carried out in violation of its international obligations.
We would like the Board of Governors, which will meet in the near future, to be able to take a strong position on the Agency's report by the Director General, for whom we reaffirm our strong support and whose work we again commend.
Lastly, as President Hollande indicated on Monday, and the Minister reaffirmed this morning, we will assume our responsibility to strengthen the sanctions against Iran until it changes its stance and complies with international law.
Iran - Nuclear (Q&A - Excerpt from the daily press briefing - 03.09.12)
Q. - On BFMTV this morning, Laurent Fabius spoke about strengthening sanctions against Iran. What areas do they relate to? What can still be done exactly?
THE SPOKESMAN - The Minister said the sanctions must be strengthened, particularly given the IAEA's latest report, which shows once again that Iran is not complying with her international obligations. Regarding the sanctions, he added: "We are of course in the process of examining all the options." We'll consult our partners on the matter.