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Iran reacted angrily
Tuesday to a UN Security Council resolution ordering it to
freeze sensitive nuclear work by the end of the month, one
top official branding the text as "worthless", AFP
reported.
 UN
Resolution 1696, adopted on Monday, warned the Islamic
Republic that it might face sanctions unless it halts
uranium enrichment and other work that could help build a
nuclear bomb.
"While the Security
Council does not dare to condemn the Qana massacre (in
south Lebanon) ... it feels alarmed by Iran's nuclear
activities and adopts a resolution that is worthless in
the eyes of people," parliament speaker Gholam-Ali
Hadad-Adel was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
The resolution was also
decried as "destructive and totally unwarranted" by Iran's
UN ambassador.
"I would suggest to you
that this approach will not lead to any productive
outcome. It can only exacerbate the situation," Javad
Zarif told the Security Council in New York.
"The Americans must be
sure that Iran will not take part in a game which it will
lose," Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian
parliament's influential foreign affairs commission, was
also quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"If there were to be a
loser, it would be those who have shifted the Iranian
nuclear issue away from dialogue," he warned.
The Security Council
gave Tehran an August 31 deadline to comply, and said that
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed
ElBaradei should then report back on what Iran has done to
fall into line.
Iran insists it only
wants to enrich uranium to make reactor fuel and that this
is a right enshrined by the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
Demands for a
suspension stem from widespread suspicions the country
wants the capacity to make weapons-grade uranium.
The resolution was
pushed through after Iran ignored a previous but
non-binding deadline and failed to respond to an offer of
incentives in exchange for a moratorium.
But the text held off
from an immediate threat of sanctions, which have been
opposed by Russia and China, and said any punitive action
would have to be the subject of further discussions.
Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergei Kislyak said the resolution was "balanced
and gives every opportunity for continuing the process of
negotiations", although he did warn that "the Security
Council could examine further steps to persuade Iran."
"Of course, no one is
going to look at any use of force," he was quoted by
Interfax as saying.
But a state radio
commentator said the resolution was merely fresh proof
that "Western countries want to prevent Iran from having
an independent nuclear energy programme."
"A powerful Iran which
masters the latest technology is against their interests,"
the commentator said, adding that "history has shown that
when the people have a goal and the government supports
them, nothing can hold them back."
 An
editorial in the ultra-hardline Siasat Rouz newspaper
called on the government to quit the NPT -- something
officials have already threatened to do if the pressure
mounts.
"In preparing the final
battle, we should at first attack US bases in neighbouring
countries and then clear the region of this infected
microbe," the paper said, while also calling on Iran to
rally "friendly governments and Muslim people ready to
carry out suicide attacks".
"It shows the Security
Council has sadly become an instrument in the hands of the
Americans," the hardline Jomhuri Eslami paper fumed. "Iran
will undoubtedly respond by suspending its adhesion to the
NPT."
And the hardline Kayhan
newspaper, whose firebrand editor is appointed by supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the UN order "does not
carry the necessary weight."
"The objective... is to
threaten Iran rather than take action," the paper said.
The text represents a
diplomatic victory for the United States, which has long
been pushing for tough action.
"The clock has begun to
tick," said John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United
Nations. "The ball is now clearly in Iran's court. The
choice is up to them."
US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice also said she was "confident that we have
very good cooperation with Russia and China on this
issue", while asserting that the resolution "does not
close the door to diplomacy".
"We remain committed to
a negotiated solution," British Foreign Secretary Margaret
Beckett also declared.
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