Iran's foreign ministry on Thursday summoned the envoys of Britain, France and Germany over what it called a "misuse of the U.N. Security Council to hold a closed-door meeting" over Tehran's nuclear program, Iranian state media reported.
The closed-door meeting at the U.N. was called by six of the Security Council's 15 members - the U.S., France, Greece, Panama, South Korea and Britain.
Britain warned on Wednesday that it would trigger a return of U.N. sanctions on Iran, if needed, to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon as the Security Council met to discuss Tehran's expansion of its stock of uranium that is close to weapons grade.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned that its production of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, has recently jumped.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.
The U.S. mission to the U.N. said in a statement after the Council meeting that Iran was "the only country in the world without nuclear weapons producing highly enriched uranium, for which it has no credible peaceful purpose."
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On Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to dismiss a U.S. proposal for negotiating over its nuclear programme.
State-run media on Thursday quoted the foreign minister as not ruling out talks.