On March 3, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1803, imposing a third round of economic sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. In response, Iran refused to continue talks with the Iran-Six, a group of international mediators comprising the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.
"The new resolution has been adopted without taking into account Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is unfair," Manouchehr Mottaki said at a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey, who had traveled to Tehran to sign a natural gas purchase contract between Iran and the Swiss utility, Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg.
Under the new sanctions, the accounts of certain Iranian companies and banks will be frozen, and goods leaving and entering the Islamic Republic will be subjected to inspections. In addition, travel bans have been imposed on five Iranian officials involved in nuclear projects.
The Iranian minister said Tehran had answered all the IAEA questions related to its past nuclear activities.
"From now on, we will continue cooperating with the IAEA in a routine manner, as any other country, solely and exclusively in line with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the [Iran-IAEA] safeguards agreement," he said.
The diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West, which at times has threatened to take on a military nature, began almost six years ago over suspicions that Tehran was secretly developing atomic weapons.
Tehran has always maintained that it needs nuclear technology for electricity generation only. Two previous rounds of UN sanctions were imposed on Tehran in December 2006 and March 2007.
