John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on the EU-Iran nuclear discussions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18713/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 253 of 31 May.

Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme between Iran and France, Germany and the UK, supported by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, resulted in an agreement signed in Paris in November 2004 on nuclear issues and future co-operation. Under this agreement, which was endorsed by the European Council last December, Iran, inter alia, reaffirmed that it does not and will not seek to acquire nuclear weapons and committed itself to full transparency and co-operation with the IAEA. Iran, moreover, decided to voluntarily suspend all enrichment and reprocessing activities and to invite the IAEA to verify and to monitor the suspension. The agreement further provided for negotiations on a long-term agreement, which will cover political and security issues; technology and co-operation; and nuclear issues.

A steering committee to launch these negotiations met for the first time in December 2004 and established working groups on political and security issues, technology and co-operation, and nuclear issues. Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the steering committee receives progress reports from the working groups and identifies projects and/or measures that can be implemented in advance of an overall agreement. The working groups met most recently on 19 April in Geneva and the steering committee met on 29 April in London.

At the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors last March, France, Germany and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement in which they gave their preliminary assessment of the negotiations with Iran. They indicated that the negotiations have allowed for an extensive exchange of views, notably on ways to provide objective guarantees that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement. The two sides have discussed long-term arrangements for co-operation between the EU and Iran in the political and security area, as well as in the economic and technological field. They have also explored the prospects for mutually acceptable arrangements for Iran's nuclear programme, which would provide objective guarantees that it could not be used for military purposes. In reiterating their commitment to the negotiation process, France, Germany and the United Kingdom stressed that it is essential that confidence be maintained through the continued implementation in good faith of all aspects of the Paris Agreement.

In recent weeks, such confidence was undermined when Iran issued statements that suggested that it would recommence some activities covered by voluntary suspension. France, Germany and the United Kingdom, in response, wrote to Iran and called for a ministerial-level meeting, which took place on 25 May in Geneva. At a subsequent press conference, the UK's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, commented that the two sides had a thorough discussion within the framework of the Paris Agreement. He indicated that the European side would make detailed proposals to Iran by the end of July or the beginning of August, in the context of the Paris Agreement remaining in force. During the meeting the European side again recognised Iran's rights to nuclear energy for peaceful uses under Article IV of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT, exercised in conformity with its non-proliferation obligations under the treaty, without discrimination, while Iran reaffirmed its commitment not to seek nuclear weapons.