Thank you, Mr. Chairman,

The United States would like to extend its appreciation to the Director General and his staff for the January 17 report on the Agency’s role in verifying the nuclear-related understandings contained in the Joint Plan of Action.  We welcome this enhanced verification role and commend the Director General and the Secretariat for their extensive and thorough preparations.  We are confident the IAEA will carry out these activities with the highest degree of professionalism and impartiality.

Mr. Chairman,

This week is an important milestone in the international community’s efforts to resolve concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program.  On Monday, January 20, implementation of the Joint Plan of Action began.  This marks the first time in a decade that Iran has committed to take specific steps that halt progress on its nuclear program and roll back key parts of that program.  In particular, Iran is taking steps to address a number of urgent concerns regarding its nuclear program, including its enrichment capacity, its existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, and its prospective ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium at the IR-40 reactor at Arak.  Moreover, Iran has committed to provide increased transparency regarding its nuclear program, allowing the IAEA to conduct more frequent and intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities and granting the IAEA access to additional locations as agreed to in the Joint Plan of Action.  These agreed restraints on Iran’s nuclear program and the enhanced transparency measures under the Joint Plan of Action are prefatory to negotiations on a long-term comprehensive solution to the Iran nuclear issue.

The IAEA is fulfilling the essential role in verifying the Joint Plan of Action’s nuclear-related understandings, in conjunction with the Agency’s ongoing implementation of Iran’s safeguards agreement and other international nonproliferation obligations.  The United States intends to make an appropriate financial contribution and is committed to working with the Board and Member States to provide the Agency the resources it needs for carrying out this work.

Mr. Chairman,

In parallel to these ongoing efforts, the IAEA has been working diligently to make progress in its efforts to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.  As the IAEA and Iran prepare to meet again on February 8 to discuss the next phase of measures under the Framework for Cooperation, we again urge Iran to begin addressing in substance the international community’s core concerns on its past and present activities, including those related to the possible military dimensions of its nuclear program.  A satisfactory resolution of these issues will be crucial to any comprehensive solution.

Mr. Chairman,

With the implementation of the Joint Plan of Action beginning on January 20, we have made initial progress in our effort to address the international community’s concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program.  Both sides must abide by their commitments pursuant to the Plan; the IAEA will provide regular updates that Iran has complied with the nuclear-related provisions in a timely and faithful manner.  Furthermore, we will look to begin the critical work of pursuing a long-term comprehensive solution that provides confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.  The Agency will continue to be central to the pursuit of that objective.

Mr. Chairman,

With these comments, my delegation takes note of the Director General’s reports as contained in documents GOV/2014/2 and GOV/2014/INF/1.  We look forward to further reports on this matter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.