Iran’s parliament to review relations with UN nuclear watchdog over latest sanctions

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Iran to review relations with UN nuclear watchdog

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran warned Thursday it will review relations with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a day after the U.N. Security Council approved a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran’s president dismissed the sanctions as “annoying flies” and as useless as “used tissues.”

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s powerful National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, described the sanctions as “political, illegal and illogical” and said lawmakers would quickly “begin a revision of Iran’s relations” with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

He did not say what options would be discussed. But one possibility is Iran could restrict IAEA inspectors’ access to nuclear facilities — making the country’s nuclear program even more opaque.

In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said the agency had no comment.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said imposing new sanctions “is not constructive, and will destroy the grounds for solving the current crisis” with the West.

Though Washington hailed the sanctions as the toughest Iran has ever faced, they did not amount to the “crippling” penalties U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to pursue a year ago if U.S. attempts to engage Iran diplomatically failed.

The new sanctions do not affect oil exports, the lifeblood of Iran’s economy, because targeting them would have cost the U.S. essential support from veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China. Both have strong economic ties with Tehran and the Russians and Chinese also nixed any ban on gasoline imports.

The Iranian review, slated to begin Sunday, will likely produce lengthy diatribes by lawmakers against the U.N. sanctions. In the past, parliament responded to international pressure over the nuclear program by passing bills that opened the door for its acceleration.

Iranian officials said the new sanctions will do little more than harden the country’s resolve to move ahead with the nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies strongly suspect is aimed at developing weapons.

Some Iranian officials took a more cautious line on ties with the IAEA.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organization, was quoted by the semiofficial ILNA news agency as saying that the plans for the reduction of relations with the IAEA “should be examined in detail” and that Iran would announce its stance “after review and analysis.”

Salehi accused the West of trying to goad Iran, but said Iran was “patient and we will not react hastily.” He said the resolution marked a last resort by the West, which would have to accept Iran’s right to pursue a nuclear program.

State television focused its coverage of the Security Council vote on Brazil and Turkey — the two non-permanent Council members who voted against sanctions. Iranian TV described those votes as a “defeat” for the U.S. in its bid to form a consensus in the U.N.’s most powerful body.

The 70 million Iranians have lived under some sort of sanctions or restrictions for most of the last three decades. And on the streets of Tehran Thursday, people took the latest punishment in stride.

Mahsa Rezaei, a 27-year-old computer science study at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, said he doubted the latest sanctions round would be any more effective than the previous three.

“This is something between the Western countries and the government, not ordinary people,” Rezaei told The Associated Press.

Analysts have questioned whether the new sanctions can persuade Iranians to suspend their fast-expanding uranium enrichment and sit down at the negotiating table with the U.S., China, Russia and other major powers who have offered a package of incentives if they do. Uranium enrichment is a process that can be used to develop nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday described the latest U.N. measures as “annoying flies, like a used tissue.” During an official visit to Tajikistan, he said the resolution “isn’t worth a cent for the Iranian nation.”

A hard-line member of the parliamentary committee, Mohammad Karamirad, suggested Iran could quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT.

“If the West plans to increase its political pressures and bullying, the issue of withdrawal from NPT will be on the agenda in the parliament,” IRNA quoted Karamirad as saying. The hard-line Karamirad has in the past suggested Iran withdraw from the NPT but that has not happened.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the Austria-based IAEA, said Thursday there would be no withdrawal from the treaty.

“There is no intention to withdraw from NPT,” Soltanieh said in Vienna. “We are going to continue our commitment under the NPT — nothing more and nothing less.”

The NPT commits countries that have ratified it to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to cooperate in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to work toward nuclear disarmament and complete disarmament.

Commerce Minister Mahdi Ghazanfari said Thursday in Beijing that the new sanctions would be “ineffective” and that Iran will find “new ways” for economic cooperation with other countries, IRNA reported. Ghazanfari claimed that even among those who voted for the sanctions, “there are countries that are pursuing economic cooperation with Iran and enjoy opportunities” — an apparent reference to trade partner China.

The latest sanctions offer little in the way of measures that would seriously undermine Iran’s economy. Such concessions were seen as necessary to win approval from Russia and China.

Both China and Russia have eyed investments in Iran’s energy sector, opting to keep the door open through memorandums of understanding with Tehran for a time when their companies can more freely invest in the nation.

The sanctions came after several months of difficult negotiations by the five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and nonmember Germany.

Billed as the toughest yet against the conservative government, they include a freeze on the assets of 40 additional companies and organizations — 15 linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, 22 involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities, and three linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. They also add the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran’s Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center to a list of 40 people now subject to both an asset freeze and travel ban.

Under the resolution, Iran is now banned from pursuing “any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” investing in nuclear-related activities such as uranium mining, and buying eight categories of heavy weapons including attack helicopters and missiles.

Iran, however, already has most of what it would need to make a nuclear weapon.

President Barack Obama said the measures impose “the toughest sanctions ever faced by the Iranian government, and it sends an unmistakable message about the international community’s commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.”

“Actions do have consequences, and today the Iranian government will face some of those consequences,” Obama said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said new sanctions will pave the way for tougher additional measures by the U.S. and its allies. France’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said European Union foreign ministers will be meeting on Monday. But while France would like tougher EU measures, all bloc countries must agree.

The resolution came shortly after Turkey and Brazil brokered a fuel-swap agreement with Iran that was cast as an alternative solution to Western concerns that Tehran may be enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

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Associated Press Writers Edith M. Lederer in New York and George Jahn in Vienna, Austria contributed to this report.