Source: Al Manar TV, 9-02-2008
Addressing a conference on Iran's nuclear program in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manucheher Mottaki said the UN Security Council resolutions against his country were both illegal and politically motivated.
"Today it is conspicuous, more than any time, that the previous UN Security Council resolutions have been free from any technical and legal justifications and were only a consequence of biased and political goals of some specific countries," Mottaki said.
He added that Iran had no plan to hold tow-way negotiations with the United States. "Negotiations with the United States are not on Iran's agenda. The negotiations that took place between Iran and the US, with the presence and participation of Iraqi government representatives, were merely aimed at improving the Iraqi situation, helping the Iraqi people, and stabilizing and supporting the legal government of Iraq," the Iranian top diplomat said.
The Foreign Minister's comments came just a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to rule out any nuclear negotiations with Europe saying the issue would only be discussed with the IAEA.
The UNSC had passed a third set of sanctions on Iran last Monday. They ordered assets of additional Iranian officials to be frozen and companies with links to the country's nuclear and missile program, and for the first time banned trade with Iran in some goods that have both civilian and military use.
An IAEA report in February said that while Iran had cooperated in clearing up many of the questions over its nuclear program, it had not responded to properly to intelligence forwarded by the US and its allies purportedly showing nuclear weapons technology.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is for civil and peaceful purposes and that it will not retreat one iota from it.