Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at a Security Council Briefing on Iran and Resolution 1737

Susan E. Rice
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations 
U.S. Mission to the United Nations 

New York, NY

June 23, 2011

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. President, and Ambassador Osorio, for your briefing today. We are grateful for your able leadership, which has done so much to ensure that the 1737 Committee remains active and focused on implementing its important mandate.

One year ago, this Council adopted Resolution 1929 in response to Iran’s continued noncompliance with its international nuclear obligations. Iran’s continued failure to comply with those obligations reminds us how important sanctions are—and how important it is that the international community implement and enforce them.

Mr. President, I will focus today on three points.

First, let me turn to the IAEA Director General’s latest report, which clearly demonstrates Iran's continued noncompliance, lack of cooperation with the IAEA, and refusal to resolve the outstanding issues related to its nuclear program. Most notably, the Director General’s report confirms—once again—that Iran is continuing its enrichment and heavy-water-related activities, in violation of the demands of this Council and the IAEA’s Board of Governors. This report also highlights Iran’s continued refusal to respond substantively to information indicating that its nuclear program may have military dimensions.

These developments only deepen our concerns about Iran’s intentions. So does Iran’s recent announcement that it intends to triple production of near-twenty-percent enriched uranium and move that production to its enrichment facility near Qom—a facility built in secret and with an unclear purpose, despite years of IAEA requests. This Council established many years ago that Iran must demonstrate the “exclusively peaceful purpose” of its nuclear program. The IAEA Director General’s latest report underscores why Iran must be held accountable—and why the international community must continue to demand that Iran comply fully with its international obligations and fully implement the relevant Security Council resolutions.

Second, in light of Iran's continued noncompliance, the international community must further strengthen the implementation and enforcement of UN sanctions. The 1737 Committee, the Panel of Experts, and UN member states each play an important role here.

The United States strongly supports the Panel of Experts. We welcome the Council’s decision last week to renew the Panel’s mandate for another 12 months. The United States remains impressed by the Panel's high-quality and professional work. We are particularly pleased that the Panel has been able to uncover so much information about Iran’s attempts to evade UN sanctions. The Panel's recent final report contains troubling findings, including significant evidence about several reported violations of UN sanctions related to Iran.

In its report, the Panel made 30 recommendations to more tightly enforce the UN sanctions. We encourage the Committee to take immediate steps to implement these recommendations. Our goal should be to implement them before the 1737 Committee reports back to the Council in September.

The Panel's final report must be quickly disseminated to all UN member states, as is standard practice for UN expert panels. This report, which the Council has not yet released publicly, highlights information and best practices that can help states carry out their obligations. It needs to be shared. Making these reports publicly available shows important transparency. It also underscores that we are serious about implementing the sanctions we have imposed on Iran.

Mr. President, that brings me to my final point. My government remains committed to a diplomatic solution. But diplomacy can only succeed if Iran complies with its international nuclear obligations and engages seriously with the international community to address the world’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

As we and our P5+1 partners stated last week, we tried several times to engage Iran in a constructive dialogue towards a comprehensive, negotiated, long-term solution to the global crisis of confidence about Iran’s nuclear program. But Iran was not prepared to enter into a genuine dialogue without preconditions, so our attempts have reached no substantive result. We reaffirmed our unity of purpose to use direct diplomacy, in the context of our dual-track strategy, to resolve our shared concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Our objective remains clear: to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We remain committed to working closely toward that goal with our partners in the 1737 Committee, the Panel of Experts, this Council, and the international community.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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