United Nations: Iran's UN ambassador has accused an Iranian opposition group on the US and European Union terror blacklist of fabricating allegations that the country tried to make nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

Ambassador Mohammad Khazee said yesterday the United States was getting unreliable intelligence from the Mujahedeen Khalq, also known as the People s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, which helped Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

He insisted that Iran has resolved all six outstanding issues about its nuclear programme which the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in its report last Friday and Tehran should not face any new UN sanctions.

He warned that new sanctions would harm "the credibility" of the UN nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA should deal with any questions about Iran s nuclear programme, not the UN Security Council, Khazee said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The council, however, is expected to approve a third round of sanctions against Iran later this week for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, though most likely not by the unanimous vote in the first two rounds. Khazee told a news conference later that if new sanctions are approved "it would not be logical to comply with the resolution."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disputed the Iranian assessment, saying the IAEA report provides "very strong" grounds for the Security Council to move ahead quickly with new sanctions. She cited the government s refusal to suspend enrichment as the council has demanded and its failure to respond credibly to US allegations that Iran conducted weapons research into high explosives and missile design in the 1990s.

Source : PTI