UN slaps new sanctions,Iran defiant

Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the latest sanctions,saying that they are annoying flies,like a used tissue.

Susan E Rice,the US ambassador to the UN,said the body had risen to its responsibilities by approving the measure,and that now Iran should choose a wiser course.

Diplomats from Brazil and Turkey,which negotiated a deal with Iran last month to send some of its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for access to fuel for a medical reactor,criticised the sanctions,saying they could undermine further attempts at diplomacy.

Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti,Brazils representative to the UN,said we do not see sanctions as an effective instrument in this case.

The five permanent Security Council nations that negotiated the new sanctions also left the door open to new diplomacy. The resolution contained the full text of a 2008 offer for increased civilian nuclear cooperation in exchange for Iran stopping enrichment.

The thrust of the sanctions is against military,trade and financial transactions carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,which controls the nuclear programme.

The US had sought broader measures against Iranian banks,its insurance industry and other trade,but China and Russia were adamant that the sanctions not affect the economy. US and China were wrangling down to the last day over which banks to include on the list,diplomats said,and in the end only one appeared on the list of 40 new companies to be blacklisted.

In the end,both the energy sector and the Central Bank were mentioned with somewhat tortured wording in the opening paragraphs.

US President Barack Obama said the toughest-ever UN security sanctions on Iran shows the international communitys commitment in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons but that diplomatic options are still available for Tehran.