TEHRAN: Iran remained defiant on Thursday in rejecting UN sanctions over its uranium enrichment and said it could review ties with the UN atomic body, as world powers stressed the door was still open for dialogue.
However, diplomats said Tehran was wavering between whether to confront world powers with a hard-line position or opt for talks after it was abandoned by close allies Russia and China, who voted for the measures.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted sanctions resolution by a 12-2 vote, with Lebanon abstaining and Brazil and Turkey voting against.
The sanctions drew an immediate, scornful reaction from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"These resolutions are not worth a dime for the Iranian nation," said Ahmadinejad, who had earlier threatened to suspend negotiations with six major powers if the sanctions were imposed.
Speaking in the Tajik capital Dushanbe minutes after the UN vote, he said he had told world powers "that the resolutions you issue are like a used hanky which should be thrown in the dust bin."
On Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told state news agency IRNA that the new resolution "will not dissuade the Islamic Republic of Iran from pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."
The visibly angry Iranians further expressed defiance by warning Tehran could reduce its ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The majlis (parliament)… will adopt on Sunday a top priority bill which talks of decreasing ties with the IAEA," Esmaeel Kosari, a member of its committee on national security and foreign policy, told Fars news agency.
Iranian newspapers, both hardline and reformist, also unanimously denounced the sanctions.
The hardline Kayhan daily ran a front-page lead headline: "Wait for Iran’s decisive response to illegal sanctions."
The reformist daily Aftab e-Yazd said: "Now that the West, along with Russia and China, has adopted the path of confrontation, Iran’s response will be strong."
World powers maintained their dual-track approach of pressure through sanctions alongside negotiations.
US President Barack Obama said the measures were the "toughest-ever" against Iran but "do not close the door on diplomacy."
"Iran continues to have the opportunity to take a different and better path," he said.
In its fourth package of sanctions against Iran, the Security Council imposed broader military and financial restrictions over the opposition of Brazil and Turkey, which had argued that a nuclear fuel swap deal they signed with Iran last month created the opportunity for further diplomacy.
The sanctions resolution expands an arms embargo, which Russia said would force it to freeze a contract to deliver S-300 air defence missiles.
Previous delays had already been a source of friction between Tehran and Moscow.
Israel and the United States, neither of which has ruled out military action to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons, had both strongly opposed the deal for fear that the missiles would make strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities much more difficult.
The sanctions also bar Iran from sensitive activities such as uranium mining, and authorise states to conduct high-sea inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items for Iran.
Diplomats said the sanctions, which could soon be augmented by additional measures from individual powers, were a blow to Iran.
"More unilateral sanctions from the US and the EU are expected soon, which would significantly damage the economy," one diplomat told AFP in Tehran.
And in Berlin, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the European Union should consider "further measures" against Iran.
But Russia, seeking to cool frayed tempers, warned against unilateral action, saying that would be "unacceptable" for Moscow.
Online energy sector magazine BEDigest said "since the sanctions do not target Tehran’s energy or trade sectors directly, the current situation of trade and financial transactions with Iran will go on."
Despite Ahmadinejad’s vitriolics, some top Iranian officials appeared to be cautious, indicating Tehran’s dilemma.
"It is too early to know which path the Iranian leaders will choose," another diplomat in Tehran said, adding that the Islamic republic had been "snubbed diplomatically."
Iran atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi had said just before the vote that Iran could talk with some world powers over the nuclear fuel deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey.
But after the vote he hit out at China, where he began a visit on Thursday. He said it was "losing its respectable position in the Islamic world and by the time it wakes up, it will be too late."
On Thursday, China attempted to cool tempers, saying it "highly values relations with Iran and feels they are conducive to regional peace, stability and development."
