Iran's parliament wants revised ties with UN

Iran’s parliament today voted to urge the government to “revise” ties with the UN nuclear agency in a move seen as likely to reduce the country’s co-operation with the international atomic authority.

“Some 161 out of 203 present legislators voted in favour of the bill,” parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said in a session broadcast live on state radio.

The bill said that the government was “obliged to accelerate the country’s peaceful nuclear programme and revise its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency based on national interests".

The government supported the bill, with deputy foreign minister Hamid Reza Asefi urging legislators to support it.

“This is a very helpful proposal. I ask legislators to vote for it,” Asefi said.

For the bill to become law, it must be approved by the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog controlled by hard-line clerics.