With his trademark maverick rhetoric, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that UN Security Council resolutions would not halt his country's drive to acquire a nuclear program.

"Enemies of the Iranian nation are seeking to use the UN Security Council to prevent Iran's progress," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad, speaking at a rally in the central Yazd province.

Ahmadinejad's remarks came shortly before the six powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – released an agreement fermented through arduous consultations over the past two weeks.

Ahmadinejad scoffed at the penalty, saying that sanctions had long been imposed on his country but that Tehran had still progressed in nuclear research.

"What is the point of issuing such resolutions? The Iranian people have mastered the nuclear fuel cycle," the Iranian president said.

"Orders and decisions of the kind will not matter to the Iranian nation and neither will any sanctions," Ahmadinejad said.

He further reiterated the peaceful intention of Iran's nuclear activities, saying this process was "completely legal and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."

Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel forewarned on Thursday that more sanctions being piled in Iran would play into the hands of Washington's Greater Middle East Initiative.

"The Americans who entered the region on the pretext of bringing democracy and freedom are now seeking to sow discord between Shiite and Sunni Muslims," Adel said while meeting visiting Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri.

The Iranian parliament chief stated that Iran and Syria have a duty, as influential nations in the region, to thwart the "satanic" plots of the United States.

Also on Thursday, Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said that Iran remained unthreatened by the looming new UN sanctions, illustrating that Iran had lived with a US economic embargo for the last 25 years.

Vaziri-Hamaneh was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-day Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting (March 14-15) in Vienna.

Addressing any impact sanctions could have on Iran's development plans, he said, "By providing incentives for domestic and foreign investment, we have in fact improved our capacity in many areas, particularly for the petrochemical and oil industries."

According to the draft agreed on by the UN Security Council members plus Germany, nations and international financial institutions are encouraged to halt any new commitments to Iran such as "grants, financial assistance and concessional loans", with an exception made for "humanitarian and developmental purposes."

The agreement also proposes an embargo on conventional weapons to Iran and cautions states to "exercise vigilance and restraint" in any heavy weapons sales to Tehran. 

Meanwhile, a mandatory travel ban has been dropped to be replaced with a call for restraint. The draft specifically mentions that countries should "exercise vigilance and restraint" in barring travel by Iranian officials that have ties to Iran's sensitive nuclear activities or nuclear weapon delivery systems.

In regard to this issue, the draft further expands the blacklist of Iranian officials included in the resolution adopted last December.

Finally, the resolution extends the freeze of assets to additional groups, companies and individuals that are linked to or support sensitive nuclear activities or development of ballistic missiles.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2007)