"Our position is crystal clear. As we have stated before, from our point of view, Iran's nuclear problem is over, but they have made the same mistake again...an ineffective resolution," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
He said Iran did not consider decisions such as the UN resolution that important adding, "The more they make mistakes like that, the more they will harm themselves."
Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic's nuclear activity was legitimate and "nobody except the IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] can make decisions and impose anything on the Iranian people."
Russia's foreign minister said, commenting on a new resolution, that, "The measures are not harsh sanctions, they call on states to be careful in developing trade and economic relations with Iran to prevent the transfer of illegal and prohibited materials that can be used in nuclear activity."
Sergei Lavrov also said, "out of the seven issues the IAEA had, three have been settled, and the remaining four are under consideration, and are to be settled in three-four weeks."
The new resolution, the third in two years, was agreed on by the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany. It is expected to expand travel bans and asset freezes. More stringent sanctions have been blocked by China and Russia, with extensive business interests in Iran, whereas the U.S. has pushed for tough measures to be taken against the Islamic Republic.
Western nations fear Iran seeks to produce nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
The text of the document will be released after it has been distributed for discussion by the full Security Council.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said the country would continue uranium enrichment even if the Security Council adopted yet another resolution, citing the country's legitimate right to nuclear technology.
Ahmadinejad said late last year that Iran would gain "a greatness that is 100 times more precious than nuclear energy," if it could withstand pressure from the West over its nuclear program.
"Confronting those who speak in the language of aggression... is more important than the possession of know-how in the nuclear sphere," said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on November 21 at a rally at Ardebil, a city in the north east of Iran.
Also late last year, the IAEA issued a generally positive report on Tehran's cooperativeness with UN inspectors, and a U.S. intelligence community report stated that the country had dropped nuclear weapons research several years ago.
