TEHRAN, 12 January 2006 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday Western countries would likely seek economic sanctions against Iran after it restarted uranium enrichment research. Iran’s president defiantly vowed his country would not be “bullied” and would push ahead with its nuclear program.

Blair’s comments reflected the deepening international impatience with Iran after it broke UN seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research after a two-year freeze. Enriched uranium can be used as a fuel for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

“I think the first thing to do is to secure agreement for a reference to the Security Council, if that is indeed what the allies jointly decide, as I think seems likely,” Blair told the House of Commons, adding that he was in close contact with Washington on the issue.

“We obviously don’t rule out any measures at all,” Blair said when asked about possible sanctions. “It’s important Iran recognizes how seriously the international community treats it.”

Russia, a longtime ally of Iran which has opposed efforts to refer Tehran to the Council, expressed its anger. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and both sides shared “a deep disappointment” over Iran’s move, the ministry said. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that if Iran continued on its present course, “there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council,” which could impose sanctions.

But German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler cautioned against referring the dispute to the Security Council, saying it could further destabilize the Middle East.

Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, who have spent two years trying to persuade Iran to halt its uranium conversion and enrichment activities, meet in Berlin today to consider the next step.

Iran insists its research is for peaceful energy production only. But the United States suspects Tehran has ambitions to produce nuclear weapons.

In a speech broadcast live on state-run television, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the international outcry. “Unfortunately, a group of bullies allows itself to deprive nations of their legal and natural rights,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd during the address on a visit to the port city of Bandar Abbas. “I tell those superpowers that, with strength and prudence, Iran will pave the way to achieving peaceful nuclear energy. The Iranian nation is not frightened by the powers and their noise.”

The president accused the West of seeking to prevent Iran’s technological development and control the country by forcing it to buy nuclear fuel abroad.

“They falsely say that they oppose nuclear weapons. They want to have nuclear monopoly to sell it drop by drop at an expensive price and use it as an instrument for domination over nations,” he said.

Earlier, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani took a sharper tone, denouncing the West’s “colonial policy.” “If they cause any disturbance, they will ultimately regret it,” he warned in a speech on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.