Iran could review IAEA ties over UN draft

While Iran's nuclear energy envoy Ali Larijani was meeting senior Russian officials in Moscow, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Tehran that Iran's enemies could not do a "damn thing" to stop its nuclear program.

The European draft resolution demands nations prevent the sale and supply of equipment, technology and financing contributing to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. It was drawn up by Britain, France and Germany.

Russia, a veto-wielding Security Council member like Britain and France, has proposed major deletions to soften the draft.

"We will review our relations with the IAEA if the U.N. accepts the Euro-troika resolution without taking into account the amendments made by Russia," Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

He did not specify what the review of relations with the IAEA could mean.

Ahmadinejad, quoted by the IRNA state agency, said Iran's opponents working on a sanctions resolution "wrongly express concern about Iran's possible diversion from a peaceful path".

"By God's grace our powerful nation will continue its path and the enemy cannot do a damn thing on the nuclear issue."

Ahmadinejad's words echoed those of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, who said "America cannot do a damn thing" after Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in 1979 and took dozens of diplomats hostage.

Meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Larijani also referred to the events of 1979, saying that "after the Islamic Revolution, solid groundwork was laid for Iran's close cooperation with Russia".

"We are looking into the future, based on developing our already existing relations in political, economic and military spheres," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.

Meeting Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov later on Friday, Larijani said: "Russia is one of the centers adding to the balance in the world order".

"Iran itself plays an important stabilizing role in the region and to a large extent counterbalances the policy of the United States."

Russia is under heavy U.S. pressure to agree to tougher wording on sanctions.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday Moscow would agree to limited U.N. actions against Iran if they had a defined timeframe and there was an agreed mechanism for lifting them.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked via telephone on Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Iran resolution, Rice's spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

"She's doing her part to get this resolution over the goal line," McCormack told reporters.

"We are chipping away at some of the issues but this is multilateral diplomacy and it takes a little bit of time."

McCormack said the West wanted Tehran to stop all enrichment of nuclear material.

"We would hope that he (Larijani) would go there (to Moscow) with a message that they are ready to give up all enrichment-related activities," he said. "That would be welcome news." Reuters