Joint letter from Iran, Russia, and China to IAEA director general

Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran, stated: “Following the joint letter from Iran, Russia, and China to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council — declaring the termination of Resolution 2231 as of October 18 — today, as part of the diplomatic initiatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ambassadors and permanent representatives of the three countries to the IAEA have also sent a joint letter to the Agency’s Director General.”

He added that in this letter, the three countries described the European trio’s move to trigger the ‘snapback’ mechanism as illegal and reaffirmed that all provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 expired on October 18.

Gharibabadi continued: “There is another key point addressed in this letter — the conclusion of the IAEA Director General’s reporting on verification and monitoring in light of Resolution 2231 and the implementation of the JCPOA.”

He explained: “In the IAEA, verification and monitoring in Iran under Resolution 2231 and the implementation of the JCPOA were established by the Board of Governors’ resolution of December 15, 2015. Operational paragraph 14 of that resolution explicitly states, without any conditions, that the Board ‘decides to keep this issue on its agenda for 10 years or until the Director General submits a broader conclusion regarding Iran — whichever comes first.’

Therefore, as of October 18, the relevant item is automatically removed from the IAEA’s agenda, and no further action is required in this regard.”