Unofficial translation from Russian

On December 18, in Vienna, Iranian International Atomic Energy Agency representative Ali Akbar Salehi and IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei signed an Additional Protocol to the IAEA Safeguards Agreement pursuant to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

We welcome this responsible step of the Iranian leadership attesting to the disposition of Teheran to consistently follow the path of ensuring the full transparency of its nuclear program. The signing of the Additional Protocol and the immediate commencement of the application of its provisions in practice will enable the Agency, on a larger scale and in an effective way, to carry out its monitoring activities in order to check Iran's observance of its obligations in the field of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and must contribute to the speediest clarification of all the remaining questions to Teheran.

Russia had consistently insisted on the signing of the Additional Protocol and the strengthening on this basis of cooperation by Iran with the IAEA.

We highly appreciate the Agency's role in performing its monitoring functions in Iran on the basis of objectivity and impartiality and without bringing any unnecessary elements of politicization in this work. We expect cooperation between Iran and the IAEA to continue to be strengthened.