Today's Date:

Reply given by Michel Barnier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to a question in the Senate

Paris, May 12, 2005

You are talking about an extremely serious issue for peace, for stability in the world: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.

NORTH KOREA

Firstly, as regards North Korea, we have very clearly asked her to comply with her international commitments and accordingly undertake, as you said, the complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of her nuclear programmes in the framework of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

In answer to your question, I want to reiterate our support for the ongoing political and diplomatic process which is seeking, through diplomacy, a solution to the North Korea nuclear issue.

So we are calling for North Korea to return to the [six-country] talks immediately and unconditionally, after nearly a year's absence (...).

IRAN

And then there's Iran, where, as you said, Europe is playing a vanguard role. French, Germans, British, with the High Representative Javier Solana, have set in train, here too, a diplomatic process which is better than all the other options. And in this negotiation, we are moving forward with Iran with our eyes open. Our objective has always been clear: to prevent that great country from developing a fissile material production capability which could be used to manufacture a nuclear weapon.

On 15 November last, a first success, a first result of this European diplomacy, since Iran agreed to conclude with us the Paris Agreement, suspending all her dangerous activities, and committed herself to full cooperation and transparency with the IAEA. And on this basis we entered into complex, difficult negotiations with Iran, but once again, with our eyes open, in order to give the international community objective guarantees – this is what's important – that the Iranian programme won't have any end purpose other than an exclusively peaceful one.

The whole international community is behind us – I've talked about Europe which is totally united, but also the United States, Russia, China, the G8 – and we must of course ensure that we maintain this international support which is vital.

A few days ago, Iranian statements announced the resumption of certain sensitive activities, today suspended. I want simply to say, in conclusion, that this decision would run counter to the Paris Agreement and the resolutions adopted by the IAEA. We want to signal this position to the Tehran authorities. We continue to hope that Iran won't make this gesture, whose consequences she is aware of./.