Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the new round of sanctions passed against his country on Wednesday by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as unworthy of detailed comment.
“Those who possess atomic bombs themselves, both use and stockpile the nuclear weapons while threatening the others with them, now resort to the pretext that Iran might in the future manufacture atomic bombs and pass resolutions against us every now and then,” said Mr. Ahmadinejad on Wednesday during his visit to Tajikistan.
“I sent a message to one of them, telling him these resolutions that you pass resemble used napkins that need to be thrown to the garbage can,” Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted Mr. Ahmadinejad as saying.
Iran’s chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Saeed Jalili promised that Iran would adopt a “proportionate and firm response to the bullying powers”, in the wake of the latest sanctions. He added that a majority of the countries in the world, including the 118 non-nuclear states of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), supported Tehran’s right to use nuclear technology in civilian projects, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported.
Iran also announced on Wednesday that the negative UNSC vote would not disrupt Tehran’s cooperation with Turkey and Brazil, the two non-permanent members in the Security Council that voted against the resolution.
Mohammad Khazaee, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said the Security Council’s decision to impose fresh sanctions on his country would not close diplomatic channels.
“Regional and international cooperation with Turkey and Brazil will continue,” he told Turkey’s Anatolia news agency. Iran, Turkey and Brazil had on May 17, signed a nuclear swap deal anchored in the Tehran declaration.
However, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a senior law maker said that Iranian Parliament will on Sunday discuss a bill on revising Iran’s ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the light of Wednesday’s vote at the UNSC.
