TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament is drafting a bill on downgrading ties with the UN atomic watchdog, a lawmaker said Sunday after the Islamic republic was slapped with fresh sanctions over its nuclear drive.
"The bill to revise Iran’s relations with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is being drafted," Alaeddin Borujerdi who heads parliament’s commission on foreign policy and national security told state news agency IRNA.
"It will not be discussed today in the majlis," he added, referring to earlier announcements that the bill would come up for debate in parliament on Sunday.
Borujerdi had announced that parliament would discuss the bill on downgrading ties with the IAEA soon after the UN Security Council on Wednesday imposed new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
On Thursday his colleague in the commission, Esmail Kosari, also said the "the majlis will adopt on Sunday a top priority bill which talks of decreasing ties with the IAEA."
Borujerdi, meanwhile, said there was no plan to downgrade ties with Russia and China after the two powers voted for the sanctions resolution.
"The relations of Iran with those two countries is good and there is no decision to downgrade ties with them," he said.
Senior Iranian officials have criticized Moscow and Beijing, long time allies of Tehran, for going along with other world powers in imposing the sanctions.
The Security Council imposed new military and financial sanctions on Iran for its defiant program of uranium enrichment which world powers suspect is aimed at making nuclear weapons.
Tehran denies the charge.
