Iran to take 'action' against sanctions

TEHRAN, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Iran will meet any new U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed in relation to its nuclear program with "deserving action," an Iranian spokesman said Sunday.

Iran claims its nuclear program is for civilian energy production, but Western nations suspect the program is producing nuclear weapons.

Western nations, backed by the United States, have asked the United Nations to increase economic sanctions against Iran for alleged failure to meet transparency requirements for its nuclear program.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it couldn't determine whether Iran's nuclear program is "exclusively for peaceful purposes," a draft report circulated by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Saturday.

"In the case of the adoption of the resolution, we will make a deserving action. We will announce our decision at the right time based on the content of the resolution," the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini, told journalists in Tehran.

Hosseini failed to elaborate about what the "deserving action" entailed, the Fars news agency said Sunday.