IAEA call surprises Iran’s Rafsanjani

‘‘It was astonishing and really strange… that eventually what Europeans and America wanted was approved with unanimity. How is it possible,’’ Rafsanjani asked worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University. ‘‘We didn’t think that an international organisation, before the eyes of the whole world, would sanction that Iran should stop everything,’’ he added in a sermon broadcast live on state radio. ‘‘The decision was a cruel one.’’

‘‘I am telling you to know that you could not treat Iran like Iraq or Libya,’’ Rafsanjani told worshippers who chanted ‘‘death to America’’.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would use September’s UN General Assembly to bring Iran’s new leader face-to-face with his Western critics if no deal on Tehran’s N-programme was reached.