Iran has a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and has signed, but not ratified, an Additional Protocol to this agreement.
As the IAEA has made clear over a series of reports to its Board of Governors and to the UN Security Council,
“unless Iran addresses the long outstanding verification issues, and implements the Additional Protocol and the required transparency measures, the Agency will not be able to fully reconstruct the history of Iran's nuclear programme and provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran or about the exclusively peaceful nature of that programme”.
The IAEA has consistently requested additional transparency measures from Iran which it regards as essential to resolving these outstanding concerns.
While we welcome Iran’s latest declaration of willingness to co-operate with the IAEA to resolve the outstanding issues, it is essential that Iran provides full co- operation and transparency towards the IAEA, as it has so far failed to do. Resolution of the outstanding issues is something Iran should take forward as a matter of urgency as a member of the IAEA. However, it is not a substitute for suspension of Iran's proliferation sensitive nuclear activities, as requested by the IAEA Board of Governors as a confidence-building measure and made mandatory by the UN Security Council.