Security Council meeting 5909

The President

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Council is meeting in accordance with the understanding reached in its prior consultations.

At this meeting, the Security Council will hear a briefing by Ambassador Jan Grauls, Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). I now give the floor to Mr. Jan Grauls.

Mr. Grauls

This is the sixth 90-day report to the Security Council in accordance with paragraph 18 of resolution 1737 (2006). The report covers the period 18 March to 13 June 2008, during which the Committee held three sessions of informal consultations. The Committee also carried out its work outside the meeting room, using the silence procedure.

As members will recall, by its resolution 1803 (2008) of 3 March, the Security Council adopted additional measures relating to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Subsequently, in informal consultations on 18 March and 15 April, the members of the Committee discussed a revised text of the guidelines of the Committee for the conduct of its work, with a view to incorporating the relevant provisions of resolution 1803 (2008). On 24 April, the Committee approved the revised guidelines.

In those same consultations, given that the names of individuals and entities subject to the travel ban, travel notification requirement and/or assets freeze were available to Member States in the annexes to three separate resolutions and not in any one place, the members of the Committee discussed consolidating those annexes into a single list. The Committee approved the consolidated document on 24 April. Both the revised guidelines and the consolidated list of individuals and entities have been transmitted to all Member States; they are also available on the Committee's website.

In paragraph 13 of resolution 1803 (2008), the Council called upon all States to report to the Committee within 60 days of the adoption of the resolution, that is to say, by 2 May, on the steps they had taken with a view to implementing effectively paragraphs 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the resolution. On 27 March, my predecessor, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee, transmitted a note verbale to all Member States drawing their attention to paragraph 13 of the resolution. The note verbale also served as a reminder to States that had not yet reported under paragraph 19 of resolution 1737 (2006) and/or paragraph 8 of resolution 1747 (2007) to do so. Those States have the option to submit a combined report under two or all three resolutions, if they so desire.

To date, the reporting figures are: 89 reports under resolution 1737 (2006), 76 reports under resolution 1747 (2007) and 51 reports under resolution 1803 (2008). Unless a State requests that its report be kept confidential, the report is published and posted on the Committee's website. I wish to add here that, in response to the suggestion made by the Ambassador of Burkina Faso during the last briefing to the Security Council, as well as to requests received from other Member States, members of the Committee agreed to post an informal guidance paper on the Committee's website in order to assist Member States in writing their national reports. The informal paper has been reviewed by the members of the Committee but has not been endorsed by the Committee. The use of the informal paper is entirely optional.

As members will recall, paragraph 14 of resolution 1803 (2008) broadened the scope of the Committee's mandate as set out in resolution 1737 (2006) to also include measures imposed in resolutions 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008). In informal consultations on 28 April, it was brought to the Committee's attention that, as reported in the media, one Government had made a public statement that there had been a contravention of resolutions 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008) on its territory, with respect to the export ban on arms and related material from Iran. Subsequently, the Committee approved the dispatch of letters to the concerned States seeking clarifications and additional information.

I shall now turn to action taken by the Committee under resolution 1737 (2006).

Paragraph 13 (b) of resolution 1737 (2006) provides an exemption to the assets freeze for extraordinary expenses, as determined by the relevant States and subject to a Committee decision. The Committee granted two requests for exemption under that paragraph. Paragraph 15 of resolution 1737 (2006) provides for notifications by the relevant States to the Committee of the intention to make or receive payments or to authorize the unfreezing of funds in connection with contracts entered into prior to the listing of persons and entities in the annexes to resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008). The Committee received one such notification.

Paragraph 18 (b) of resolution 1737 (2006) tasks the Committee with seeking from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretariat information regarding the actions taken by the Agency to implement effectively the measures imposed by paragraph 16 of the same resolution, which defines the scope of the technical cooperation provided by the IAEA to Iran, and whatever further information it might consider in that regard. On 27 March, given that more than seven months had passed since the receipt of the initial update, on 22 August 2007, to the report of the IAEA of 9 February 2007, the Committee invited the Agency to provide a further update to that report. By a letter dated 18 April 2008, the IAEA informed the Committee that no projects had been added to its technical cooperation programme with Iran since the issuance of its report and provided an update on technical cooperation and technical assistance activities since 22 August 2007. Three requests for technical cooperation had been considered to be covered and had proceeded; two others had not. Forty-four requests for participation in technical assistance activities had been deemed to be in conformity with resolution 1737 (2006), whereas a further eight requests had not.

Lastly, the Committee has pending before it three written queries from Member States concerning the implementation of various provisions of resolution 1737 (2006) and resolution 1803 (2008).

The President

I thank Ambassador Grauls for his briefing. I shall now give the floor to members of the Security Council.

Mr. De Rivière (France)

I would first of all like to congratulate Ambassador Grauls on his assumption of the chairmanship of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). It is an important task, which Ambassador Verbeke performed in an outstanding manner. We have every confidence that Mr. Grauls will do likewise. We assure him of our full cooperation.

More than three months have passed since the adoption of resolution 1803 (2008). We are very concerned about indication in the last report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has still not met any of its obligations. In particular, that report indicates that Iran has not appropriately responded to the questions asked of it about one of the most dangerous aspects of its programme: the work on militarization. Since 3 June, Iran has been in violation of resolution 1803 (2008).

However, the E3 + 3 have made every effort possible to renew dialogue with Iran. It has now been five years that a series of increasingly generous offers have been made to Iran, without the slightest indication of interest on its part. Nevertheless, tomorrow, Javier Solana and five political directors from the E3 + 3 will, with the support of the United States, visit Tehran to once again present the Iranians with a proposal for negotiations. The ball is now in their court. We very much hope that they will have the wisdom to quickly seize the hand that is being extended to them.

Beyond the issue of Iran, we all of us have an individual responsibility to implement resolutions. In that regard, I would like to emphasize that cases of violations have been brought to the attention of the Committee. It is up to everyone to take the necessary measures to ensure that such cases do not happen again.

Finally, we hope that, in the future, the Committee will continue to play its full role as guardian of the resolutions and help States to ensure that they fully respect them.

Mr. Quarrey (United Kingdom)

We too thank Ambassador Grauls for his report and welcome him to his new responsibilities as Chairperson of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). The delegation of the United Kingdom will give him its full support.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the significant work undertaken in the Committee since the Council last met, including: first, the updating of the Committee's guidelines to take into account its responsibilities under resolution 1803 (2008); secondly, the preparation of the single document bringing together in one place the individuals and entities listed under the three resolutions; and, thirdly, in response to the ideas raised in this Chamber by Ambassador Kafando the last time we met, the preparation of the informal guidance paper on reporting to the Committee.

We consider resolution 1803 (2008) to be the continuation of the Council's incremental and proportionate approach to the Iranian nuclear issue, gradually increasing the pressure on Iran to address widely shared concerns about its nuclear programme. That resolution once again reiterates our wish to achieve a negotiated solution.

Three steps are required of Iran. The first is that Iran suspend all its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. Iran continues to flout the legally binding Security Council requirement for such a suspension. The second is that Iran implement fully the additional protocol and the additional measures that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has requested. Without that, the IAEA continues to be unable to provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear materials and activities in Iran; nor can it determine whether the nature of Iran's programme is exclusively peaceful. The third is that Iran resolve outstanding issues of concern to the IAEA by delivering fully on all the issues that remain outstanding under the work plan agreed between it and the Agency.

Mr. ElBaradei's most recent report demonstrated that Iran has failed to make any progress on those three issues. It also set out the information it had about activities with a possible military dimension, including activities associated with the design of a nuclear warhead. The report noted that these activities were a matter of serious concern and that it was critical that Iran clarify them in order to assess the nature of its programme.

It is worth recalling that Iran has received a generous and far-reaching offer in return for taking these steps. On 3 March of this year, the Governments of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, the Russian Federation and the United States reiterated their offer of dialogue and engagement. In that statement, the six Governments said,

"We call upon Iran to heed the requirements of the United Nations Security Council and the IAEA, including the suspension of its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.

"We remain committed to an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and reaffirm our commitment to a dual-track approach. We reconfirm the proposals we presented to Iran in June 2006 and are prepared to further develop them. Our proposals will offer substantial opportunities for political, security and economic benefits to Iran and to the region". (see S/PV.5848)

We remain committed to that approach. This weekend, as our French colleague has noted, Mr. Javier Solana, the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, will be in Tehran with concrete proposals in that sense. We very much hope that the Government of Iran will meet the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors and this Council and will take up the offer carried by Mr. Solana.

The President

I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the representative of the United States.

Three months ago, this Council adopted resolution 1803 (2008) to impose additional sanctions on Iran. These sanctions as well as those adopted earlier by the Council in resolutions 1737 (2006) and 1747 (2007) are designed to discourage and halt Iran's pursuit of technologies that would provide it with a nuclear-weapons capability. With that in mind, I would like to make five points.

First, we welcome the report of the Committee Chairman and are pleased to note the important activities being pursued by the Committee. We welcome the fact that many States have submitted the reports required by the aforementioned resolutions and we encourage all States that have not yet done so to provide their reports to the Committee as soon as possible.

We also reiterate the Council's call upon all States to exercise vigilance over the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all banks domiciled in Iran, in particular with Bank Melli and Bank Saderat and their branches and subsidiaries abroad.

Secondly, we note with great concern the 26 May 2008 report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concerning Iran's continuing non-compliance with resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008). Most disturbing is that Iran continues to defy the Security Council and has not suspended its uranium enrichment- and heavy water-related activities. Instead, Iran has expanded its installation and operation of new centrifuges and is testing advanced centrifuge designs using nuclear material. Iran has also continued the construction of a new IR-40 reactor.

Thirdly, long outstanding questions about Iran's past nuclear activities, including those that indicate Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear warhead, remain unanswered. IAEA Director General ElBaradei stated clearly that Iran must provide "substantive explanations" for these activities and that it is essential that Iran provide all requested information, clarifications and access outlined in the report without further delay.

Fourthly, we expect Iran to comply with its international obligations concerning its nuclear activities, including the full and verifiable suspension of its proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities and full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and to implement the Additional Protocols. Only through all of these steps can Iran begin to establish confidence that the nature of its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. Iran must provide to the IAEA full disclosure of any weapons-related work and allow the IAEA to verify that any such work has ceased.

Fifthly, we affirm the dual-track strategy on this issue, which is reinforced by the updated P-5+1 package that will be delivered to Iran in the near term and reiterate our belief that a mutually satisfactory negotiated solution remains open to Iran. At the same time, all Member States must implement robustly their obligations under Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008), as well as other pertinent resolutions. The Council should stand ready, in accordance with the stated intention in resolution 1803 (2008), to supplement those sanctions with additional measures.

I resume my function as President of the Council.

There are no further speakers inscribed on my list.

The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.