(Agencies - China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-05 09:04

Teheran on Tuesday dismissed as illegal the UN decision to impose new sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its nuclear enrichment and other sensitive activities.

It denounced the current and previous UN resolutions as violations of international law and said they only harmed the 15-nation Security Council's standing.

"The credibility of the Security Council ... is readily downgraded to a mere tool of the national foreign policy of just a few countries," Iran's UN Ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, told the council before the vote.

He also dismissed as "baseless" new US intelligence suggesting Iran had conducted an intensive study into building atomic weapons, saying his country's nuclear program "has been, is and will remain absolutely peaceful."

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Speaking at the opening of a meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog's governing board in Vienna on Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), urged Teheran to clear up the matter swiftly.

Teheran has so far ignored all council and IAEA resolutions demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment program, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.

Diplomats describe the sanctions as a moderate tightening of the screws from the two previous resolutions. They said this was the most Washington could get after a surprising US intelligence report released in December said Iran had scrapped an atom bomb program in 2003.

The five permanent council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - and Germany, which is not on the council, agreed in Berlin on Jan 22 on a draft text outlining a third round of sanctions against Teheran.

Libya, Vietnam and South Africa, as well as Indonesia, had expressed reservations about the resolution, but vigorous Western lobbying managed to win over all except Jakarta.

"Iran is cooperating with the IAEA," Indonesian Ambassador Marty Natalegawa said, explaining his decision to abstain. "At this juncture more sanctions are not the best course."

Ambassador defends rights

The Iranian ambassador to China said yesterday that the latest sanctions won't resolve the nuclear problem and only direct talks can offer true solutions.

"The United States and some European countries will have to accept talks with Iran. They will accept our rights," Dr Javad Mansour told China Daily.

The ambassador says the US and some European countries "will understand their current doctrine won't help anything" because the true problem does not lie in Iran's nuclear development.

"Difficulties have existed (between Iran and the US and some European countries) for about 30 years even if the nuclear issue did not exist that long ago," Mansouri said. "They press us because of Iran's unique geographical strategic location."

The ambassador added that he thinks US media dominance is a key factor that makes the nuclear issue bigger.