UNITED NATIONS, 16 March 2007 — Six major powers announced an agreement yesterday to impose new UN sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said UN Security Council lacked any legitimacy.

The sanctions measure was sent to the 15-nation Security Council for a potential vote next week. It would penalize Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used in nuclear bombs or for peaceful ends.

Iran says it seeks only to produce electricity, and Ahmadinejad denounced any new UN sanctions resolution.

“Issuing such torn pieces of paper... will not have an impact on (the) Iranian nation’s will,” he told a rally in central Iran, according to the official news agency, IRNA.

“Today the enemies of the Iranian people are seeking to use the Security Council to prevent the progress and development of Iran. But the Security Council has no legitimacy among the peoples of the world,” said Ahmadinejad.

“They think that they are the representatives of the international community but the Iranian people do not lend any value to their decisions,” the IRNA quoted him as saying in a speech in the central Yazd province.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry announced the agreement after consultations with his counterparts from the United States, France, Russia, China and Germany. The proposed Security Council resolution includes a ban on Iranian arms exports, an assets freeze on individuals and firms involved in Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and a call to nations and institutions to bar new grants or loans.

A key element of the agreement is an expanded list of individuals and entities subject to financial restrictions, such as firms owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp. and the state-owned Bank Sepah.

China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, who had been most critical of the list, was asked if Beijing was happy with the draft. “As the text stands, yes,” Wang said, adding that if the 10 rotating Council members “wish to change it then we have to go back again.”

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the resolution may be subject to additional minor changes. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he expected adoption of a new resolution would be accompanied by a reminder to Tehran that it could always return to negotiations if it suspended enrichment.

Passage of a new resolution by the Council is not automatic. South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, has served notice that nations would send the text to their governments for approval and may suggest changes.