Iran: UN resolution won't stop nuclear work

A planned UN sanctions resolution will force Iran to review cooperation with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog but will not make Tehran abandon its atomic program, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.

After weeks of haggling between major world powers, diplomats expect a resolution imposing limited sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work will be approved by the UN Security Council before Christmas.

"The nature of this resolution is not capable of pressuring Iran and Iran will give an appropriate response to it," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the ISNA students news agency.

"This behavior will just create more problems," He said.

"If they ratify the resolution Iran will be in a new situation. In this situation Iran will review its cooperation with the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency) and review other political, economic and cultural fields."

"The issue for the other side is not whether Iran's program is peaceful or not. Basically they don't want Iran to have such technology," Larijani said after meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Kursheed Mehmood Kasuri.

The UN resolution bans imports and exports of materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment, reprocessing and heavy-water reactors, as well as ballistic missile systems.

In a concession to Russia, it has dropped a mandatory travel ban on Iranian officials.

US wants changes in resolution

Meanwhile, the United States is seeking last-minute changes to the UN draft resolution, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

"There are some changes that are still to be made to that draft," even though the resolution has already been submitted to the full 15-member UN Security Council, Rice said, without elaborating on the changes being sought.

But Rice added that Washington was "very supportive" of the draft resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany, and she expressed confidence the measure would be adopted by the Security Council.

"I am quite satisfied and quite certain that the resolution that will be adopted will be one that both says to Iran 'you cannot defy the international community' and imposes penalties on Iran," she said.

Rice stressed that whatever the final details of the UN resolution, it will be adopted under Chapter VII of the UN charter, making its enforcement mandatory for all UN members.

"We are going to support a resolution that is Chapter VII and that is strong in showing Iran that the international community is not going to tolerate its defiance" of a previous UN resolution demanding Tehran halt its enrichment of uranium.