TEHRAN, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Iran's parliament, in response to U.N. sanctions, voted Wednesday to review its cooperation policy with the U.N.'s international nuclear watchdog agency.
Of 203 deputies present in Tehran, 161 voted in favor of reviewing and possibly reducing cooperation, keeping the vow made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the U.N. Security Council's unanimous vote Saturday to impose sanctions because of Iran's nuclear development program.
"The bill gives a free hand to the government to decide on a range of reactions -- from leaving the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to remaining in the International Atomic Energy Agency and negotiating," Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said during the debate.
The Guardian Council, the Islamist panel that screens all parliamentary bills for religious compliance immediately approved the bill, the BBC reported.
The U.N. sanctions ban movement of nuclear material into or out of Iran, freeze assets of 10 companies and 12 Iranians and holds out a threat of further non-military sanctions.
Iran insists its uranium enrichment program is for creating fuel for electricity but some other countries say Tehran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
