Remarks by Jean-Marc Sabliere, French Ambassador to the United Nations, on Discussions on Text of Iran Statement

March 17, 2006

As ambassador Jones Parry has said, we had a very good meeting. Members of the Council will react to the revised text we have circulated. I was encouraged by the reactions. I think that this text is getting a lot of support in the Council. The idea of the Council delivering a strong message to Iran is an idea which is very well accepted in the Council. I think we are not far from the end of the discussion as Ambassador Jones Parry has said. There are new consultations on Tuesday. Meanwhile we will have bilateral contacts. We are now very close to the end of the discussion to have a good text. I very much hope we will be able to have a consensus on this text.

Do you think there will be a text by Tuesday?

There will be new consultations on Tuesday. I hope we will be able to move to the chamber. But I cannot tell you today. Certainly the sooner, the better.

The Russians and the Chinese have issues about the 14 days and the IAEA demands. Where are you there?

On the requirements of the board of governors. Many delegations expressed their views and it was important to have in the text the main requirements made by the board of governors. By reading text, you can see that the requirements are in the text. The question of having Iran going back to supension of enrichment related activities, Iran ratifying and fully implementing the additional protocol, transparency, or reconsidering activities on heavy water reactor. So these elements must be in the text, and that was the opinion of many delegations today.

Do you have agreed to a time limit?

Let me underline that the 3 Europeans have said that we would like to resume negotiations. But Iran took the decision to resume its enrichment-related activities. So if Iran goes bad to suspension and meets the requirements of the board of governors, yes the negotiations will resume. And what the text is saying. Now, about the time-frame. There is some flexibility, but the sooner we can adopt the text, the more flexibility we have.