Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki Mottaki has rejected a unanimous vote by the UN Security Council to impose new sanctions on Iran and has described it as 'unjustifiable and illegal'.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the sanctions were illegal and Iran would not stop its nuclear work.
Yesterday the Council voted to tighten sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
Ahead of the vote the big powers held intensive negotiations with South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar, who wanted a reference to a nuclear-free Middle East, which was inserted into the preamble.
The new measures are a follow-up to a resolution adopted on 23 December last year.
Efforts to revive dialogue
The European Union will seek to revive dialogue with Iran, according to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Mr Solana said he planned to speak to chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani today to assess scope for relaunching negotiations that collapsed after Iran refused to suspend uranium enrichment, which the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
The 15-nation Security Council unanimously imposed arms and financial sanctions on Iran after it defied a previous resolution ordering it to suspend enrichment and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
Tehran insists its programme is purely civilian and intended only to generate electricity.
Mr Solana reaffirmed the international community's twin-track policy of offering Tehran economic and security incentives to cooperate while gradually tightening the screw of targeted sanctions if it remains defiant.
