Geneva: Iran's Foreign Minister has responded to the UN Security Council's statement giving it 30 days to abandon its uranium enrichment programme.
Manouchehr Mottaki said "Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful and has never diverted towards prohibited activities."
He added that the decision by Western countries to take Iran to the UN Security Council was "an abuse of international mechanisms, misguided, legally unwarranted and clearly unacceptable."
The US and many other major world powers believe Iran is secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has strenuously denied this, saying they have a right to pursue peaceful nuclear technologies.
Mottaki also condemned the 'shortsighted political agenda of certain powerful states' in response to the decision made by the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
