(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-01 07:46

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Thursday that UN Security Council sanctions against Iran are in violation of the UN Charter, state-run Press TV reported.

"There is no legal justification for passing resolutions against Iran, just as there was no justification for Tehran's nuclear dossier to be hauled before the UN Security Council," Hosseini was quoted as telling Bahrain's newspaper Al-Wasat.

The spokesman, meanwhile, urged the UN Security Council to shelve the Islamic Republic's nuclear dossier, so it can be dealt with by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Hosseini said the resolutions passed against Tehran "aim to deprive the Iranian nation of its legitimate and inalienable right to develop peaceful nuclear technology."

He reiterated that Iran's nuclear activities pose no threat to other countries.

Foreign ministers of the five UN permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, along with Germany last week circulated a statement containing the proposed elements of a draft resolution to impose more travel bans, frozen assets and other sanctions on Iran.

The diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West began almost six years ago over suspicions that Tehran's nuclear work is a cover for an atomic weapons program.

So far, the UN Security Council has adopted two resolutions, one in December 2006 and the other in March 2007, to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and give up its nuclear programs.