UNITED NATIONS, April 28: Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday that Tehran would not stop its uranium enrichment programme, but gave an assurance that confidence-building measures (CBMS) discussed earlier with European powers would remain on the table.

Speaking to a group of correspondents at his residence, Javad Zarif said ‘if the UN Security Council decides to take decisions not within its competence, then Iran does not feel obliged to obey’.

Responding to a question about the nuclear deal with Russia, Mr Zarif reiterated that Moscow’s proposal to conduct uranium enrichment for Iran on Russian soil ‘is still alive’.

He said a host of confidence-building measures discussed in talks with Britain, France and Germany last year were still on the table.

Mr Zarif said he expected ‘a lot of pressure from the US to impose another short-sighted decision on the Security Council’ after the release of a report by UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Mr Zarif insisted that Iran would prefer a peaceful resolution of the nuclear dispute, accusing the United States of escalating the ‘war of words’.

Mr Zarif said if Security Council action was frozen, Iran was prepared to go back to the offer it made last year in negotiations with the three European countries.

It includes presenting an additional IAEA protocol to the parliament for ratification, which allows unannounced inspection of nuclear facilities; introducing legislation to permanently ban the production, stockpiling, development and use of nuclear weapons; instituting a phased approach on enrichment activities at Iranian facilities; and declaring that Iran will not reprocess plutonium, Mr Zarif said.

In anticipation of the IAEA report, US Ambassador John Bolton has already said he planned to introduce a resolution requiring Tehran to comply with the council’s demands.

The resolution would not call for sanctions now, but would be introduced under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows for sanctions at a later stage and is militarily enforceable.

When asked how Iran would respond to such a resolution, Mr Zarif replied: “If the Security Council decides to take decisions that are not within its competence, then Iran does not feel obliged to obey.”