Iran dismissed a draft UN resolution to expand sanctions in response to its nuclear programme, saying the measures were unlikely to be approved and would not break its economy if they were implemented. The draft resolution, agreed by all five permanent Security Council members after months of negotiation, targets Iranian banks and calls for inspection of vessels suspected of carrying cargo related to Iran's nuclear or missile programmes.
"The draft being discussed at the United Nations Security Council has no legitimacy at all," Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's senior adviser Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi as saying on Wednesday. Western diplomats say the text was the result of a compromise between the United States and its three European allies, which had pushed for much tougher sanctions against Tehran, and Russia and China, which sought to dilute them.
Few of the proposed measures are new. But Western diplomats said the end result was probably the best they could have hoped for, given China's and Russia's determination to avoid measures that might have undermined Iran's troubled economy.
Other Iranian politicians sought to reassure Iranians that any new sanctions would have no more impact than existing measures which had failed to cripple the economy. "Despite all the restrictions that the arrogant countries impose on Iran in the global arena, the Islamic Republic has significant successes in political and economic fields," Energy Minister Majid Namjou was quoted as saying by ILNA news agency.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said there was "no chance for a new resolution" to be approved at the Security Council. "...Let's not take this seriously," he told reporters at a meeting in Tajikistan. Iran rejects Western allegations that its nuclear programme is aimed at developing weapons. It says its atomic ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity and refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.
"A fourth round of sanctions is unlikely to change the Iranian attitude towards its nuclear programme. Developing its nuclear programme is a strategic decision and currently priority for the regime in Tehran," said Nicole Stracke, an Iran expert at Gulf Research Center in Dubai. Iran and the two countries which brokered the swap deal urged a halt to talk of further sanctions. But the United States and its European allies regard the deal as a manoeuvre by Iran to delay their efforts to increase pressure on Tehran.
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