The European Union expresses its deep concern, as reported by the press on Thursday 24 July, at the statements by the President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran announcing that Iran no longer intends to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on questions the Agency had raised with it concerning activities that might indicate a possible military dimension to its nuclear programme.
The European Union supports the efforts of the IAEA Director General, who has called on Iran to provide without delay all the information, clarifications and access requested by the Agency in order to obtain answers to these questions, which Mr ElBaradei himself described as a source of "serious concern". It is vital that Iran provide some explanation regarding the information available to the IAEA, which the Agency judged to be detailed and generally consistent, relating in particular to "the testing of at least one full scale hemispherical, converging, explosively driven shock system that could be applicable to an implosion-type nuclear device", and on studies performed to "redesign the inner cone of the Shahab-3 missile re-entry vehicle to accommodate a nuclear warhead".
The European Union points out that in its resolution 1737 of 23 December 2006, the Security Council decided that Iran "shall provide such access and cooperation as the IAEA requests to be able to verify the suspension outlined in paragraph 2 and to resolve all outstanding issues as identified in IAEA reports".
In these circumstances, the European Union deeply deplores the statements made by the President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran on 24 July.
It urges Iran to make a serious effort to restore the international community's trust in the purposes of its nuclear programme, by acting on the requests by the IAEA Board of Governors and the Security Council, in particular the suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities, by cooperating unreservedly with the Agency, and by responding positively to the proposals by the Six for negotiations to be initiated.
