Iran tells U.N. council sanctions aren't legal

"All the so-called justifications and flawed foundations for the U.N. Security Council’s action on this issue are vanished and it shows that the resolutions ... lack any legal and technical justifications," Mottaki wrote.

The letter, addressed to Panamanian Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias, the council’s current president, was dated February 27 and circulated to reporters on Thursday.

"Naturally the continuation of this trend (of sanctions) would undermine the credibility of the Security Council and ... weaken the integrity and position of the IAEA," Mottaki wrote.

The report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was mixed, saying Iran had not responded adequately to Western intelligence allegations of work linked to making atomic bombs but had clarified issues related to other past nuclear work.

Western countries do not believe the IAEA report vindicated Iran, as Mottaki argues. They say it raises serious concerns.

WAITING FOR A VOTE

The five permanent council members -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- and Germany, which is not on the council, agreed on January 22 in Berlin on a draft text outlining a third round of sanctions against Tehran.

Washington had hoped for a swift vote on the sanctions text. U.S. officials want a vote on Friday but other council diplomats said this was looking increasingly unlikely.

"I’m confident that we will have a vote in the Security Council," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters in Washington. "I don’t know when it will be."

With the five permanent council members and six others backing the resolution it is bound to go through, but Western countries want as close to a 15-0 decision as possible and are concerned about South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Libya.

A diplomat from one of the resolution’s three European co-sponsors said some of the four sceptical council members have not received instructions from their capitals and wanted to wait until at least next week to vote on the resolution.

South Africa’s ambassador to the IAEA, Abdul Minty, said on Thursday that Pretoria wanted to delay the vote to avoid provoking Iran and jeopardizing its improved IAEA cooperation.

However, Iran’s U.N. ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told reporters that Iran had no intention of curtailing cooperation with the agency even if the resolution is adopted. But he added that Tehran had no plan to halt enrichment either.

"Suspension I think is out of the question," he said.

He said the new sanctions, which are a moderate tightening of the screws from previous resolutions, would not harm Iran.

"We have learned to live under these circumstances," Khazaee said. "We are not going to see a major impact on our economy and political status."

The draft resolution calls for more travel and financial restrictions on named Iranian individuals and companies and makes some restrictions mandatory. Two earlier sanctions rounds were approved unanimously in December 2006 and March 2007.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington, editing by Stuart Grudgings)