Iranian President Rejects Resolution

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waves to photographers as he arrives at his office in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 29, 2006. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Tehran Saturday on his fifth visit to the Islamic country where he will meet with his Iranian counterpart and fellow critic of the United States, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Chavez' two-day visit comes as Iran faces renewed international criticism for its nuclear program and as a backer of Hezbollah guerrillas, engaged in fighting with Israel since they captured to Israeli soldiers July 12.(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian) (Hasan Sarbakhshian - AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's hard-line president rejected a U.N. Security Council deadline for it to suspend uranium enrichment, saying Tuesday Tehran would not be pressured into stopping its nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd in northeastern Iran his country would not give in to United Nations' threats.

"If some think they can still speak with threatening language to the Iranian nation, they must know that they are badly mistaken," he said in a speech broadcast carried live on state-run television.

"Throughout Iran, there is one slogan: 'The Iranian nation considers the peaceful use of nuclear fuel production technology its right,'" Ahmadinejad said.

The Security Council passed a resolution Monday calling for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment by Aug. 31 or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons though Tehran maintains its program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the U.N. resolution had no legal foundation.

"It only pursues the political objectives of some countries," Asefi said in a statement. "It has been designed to exert pressure on Iran and block the path of dialogue through a destructive and inappropriate resolution."

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Monday also rejected the resolution, saying it would make negotiations more difficult on a Western incentives package offered to Iran in June in exchange for suspending enrichment.

Earlier Tuesday, Japan and Russia both urged Iran to comply with the resolution.

"We call on Iran to listen to the opinion of world society," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said Tuesday.

Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text of the Security Council resolution was watered down from earlier drafts that would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The resolution now requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions.

It was passed by a vote of 14-1, with the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Qatar casting the lone dissenting vote.

Iran had said it would formally respond on Aug. 22 to the incentives package. But a top Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday the resolution has effectively made that offer "null and void."

President Bush on Monday praised the resolution, saying it sends a message to Iran that "the world is intent on working together to make sure that they do not end up with a nuclear weapon or the know-how to build a nuclear weapon."

The resolution would call on the U.N nuclear agency, the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, to report back by Aug. 31 on Iran's compliance with the resolution's demands.