UN approves new Iran resolution

BBC - The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a new resolution on Iran, reaffirming demands it stop enriching uranium, but imposing no new sanctions.

The text calls on Iran to "comply, and without delay, with its obligations" under past resolutions and co-operate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations has rejected a Security Council resolution against the country as 'illegal and unfortunate.'

The 18-line resolution adopted on Saturday does not impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic but reaffirms three previous sanctions on Iran, calling on the country to halt uranium enrichment and increase cooperation with the UN nuclear agency.

In a statement issued immediately after the vote, Iran's UN mission called the measure an 'unpleasant surprise'.

"It is unfortunate... that yet again we are witnessing that the Security Council has been unwarrantedly and unnecessarily called to act in a hastily manner on an issue that by no stretch of logic, law or justification falls within the Council's purview, and poses no threat to international peace and security," the statement reads.

Iranians protesting previous UNSC resolutions (file photo)

"What the sponsors of today's resolution need to do is to attract the trust of the Iranian nation through constructive cooperation and collective commitment, rather than adding to our nation's mistrust by taking hasty and unlawful measures," it adds.

Indonesia, the only council member that refrained from voting on the previous round of sanctions against the country, had indicated that it would not support additional sanctions.

"The present draft resolution does not provide for additional sanctions against Iran. If it did, we would not have been able to support it," Indonesia's Ambassador to the UN, Marty Natalegawa, said in an address to the council before the vote.