UN Security Council risks losing authority - Iranian FM
15:48 11/06/2010
TASHKENT, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for the UN Security Council on Friday to take a more balanced approach in its Middle East policies or risk losing authority.
The statement follows the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution implementing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran.
"We recommend the Security Council not to let its authority drop so low. Iran is above these political games," Mottaki told participants at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
"Our motto is: nuclear power for all, nuclear weapons for no one," he said, adding that Iran was ready to cooperate with the international community over its nuclear program.
Mottaki also noted that the Security Council "took no measures" against Israel following its seizure of the Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, despite international condemnation of the act.
Western powers accuse the Islamic Republic of attempting to build nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful energy generation.
The newly adopted sanctions on Iran include tougher financial controls and an expanded arms embargo. They also stipulate an asset ban and a travel freeze on more than three dozen companies and individuals.
After the sanctions were adopted, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the resolution as a "used tissue that should be thrown in the garbage."
Earlier this week, Ahmadinejad said Tehran would pull out of international talks on its nuclear program if the sanctions were approved.
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