Disarmament Documentation

Statement by the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson (Paris, November 2, 2004)

Q - Given the recent Iranian statements on the Iranian nuclear program what's the message, the clarification you'll be sending the Iranian side at the meeting on Friday?

There's no clarification; there's a process under way, a process of dialogue and discussion which we intend to continue to the end, that is until the critical, the very important deadline when the board of governors meets on November 25. This dialogue is ongoing. There have already been several meetings and others are scheduled. Our objective, as you know, since the outset, continues to be confidence-building as to the nature of the Iranian nuclear program, and we're working in that spirit, the EU3 in liaison with all our partners and through contact and dialogue with Iran's representatives. So the work is ongoing, and we're giving it the maximum attention, the maximum effort to achieve a result which, I repeat, must dispel the doubts and establish confidence about the Iranian program. (...)

Q - Can you review the issues on which there are still problems between the international community, the three European countries and Iran, other than uranium enrichment?

There were three sections, as you may remember, when the October 21 agreement was finalized by the EU3 and the Iranian authorities in Teheran. First, the section on enrichment and reprocessing, then the one on cooperation between the Iranian authorities and IAEA, and thirdly the section pertaining to the additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty which the Iranian government pledged to sign, ratify and implement. The whole point of the board of governors' meeting on November 27, which will be preceded as I've said, by a report from the IAEA director-general Mr. ElBaradei round about November 12, is to assess the progress on the various sections, and we're waiting with the utmost interest to hear what Dr. ElBaradei will have to say on these three sections. (...)

Q - Are there contacts between Mr. Barnier and his Iranian counterpart on this matter?

The last contact, I believe, goes back to September, to the time of the opening of the UN General Assembly. I don't think there's been any contact since at ministers' level. (...)

Q - Does the NPT bar signatory countries from enriching uranium?

I don't believe it bars enrichment for civilian uses as the right of any state to acquire a nuclear capacity for civilian peaceful use is acknowledged, but acknowledged on the basis of a fundamental concept--transparency vis-à-vis the IAEA. That is the body tasked with overseeing the implementation of the non-proliferation objectives. In addition there's the additional protocol to the Non-proliferation Treaty which is intended to create further transparency. These are ways for enhanced oversight.

Q - Does a country that has signed the NPT have the right to acqire the technology to enrich uranium for civilian uses?

So long as there's transparency and the oversight of IAEA experts.

Q - One last question. Have all the countries that signed the NPT also signed the additional protocol?

I would need to check. I don't think all have, but without question that's the trend.

Q - When did France sign the additional protocol? Actually it was recently.

Q - So Iran is being asked to do something that's not yet been applied by all the major members of the nuclear club?

We're talking about instruments that one is free to subscribe to or not. I'm simply saying that there's a basic trend in the international community, a growing trend, to sign on to the additional protocol. I'm not saying anything else. (...)

Q - The US is accusing Dr. ElBaradei of having espoused the moderate ideas of France and Germany on the Iranian question. Do you consider this accusation pressure on France on the part of the US?

I can say that we have worked from the outset on the Iranian question hand in hand with our German and British partners and in the utmost transparency vis-à-vis our European Union partners who basically understand perfectly well the spirit in which we are working, the line we are taking. I've nothing further to say. (...)

Source: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.diplomatie.fr.