Iran Warns of ‘Reduced’ Ties With U.N. Inspectors

PARIS — One day after the Security Council approved new sanctions against them, the authorities in Tehran threatened on Thursday to revise their relationship with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, using familiar language that has in the past presaged moves to limit global oversight of Iran’s nuclear program.

State-run Press TV quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy in the Iranian Parliament, as saying legislators would meet on Sunday to “push for legislation to reduce” Iran’s relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

He did not offer details of a likely response to Wednesday’s Security Council action, approved by 12 of the 15 members. Brazil and Turkey opposed the measures, and Lebanon abstained.

China supported the sanctions and on Thursday, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, sharply criticized Beijing, saying Chinese support for the new measures would “affect its standing in the Muslim world.”

“There was a time when China called the United States a paper tiger,” he said. “I am perplexed that China accepted the resolution against Iran in the Security Council. What name does China deserve?” he asked, accusing China of “two-faced behavior” in its divergent policies toward the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

For their part, Turkey and Brazil had reached a contentious deal with Iran last month on an exchange of nuclear fuel that they hoped would avert a worsening confrontation with Tehran. In a speech on Thursday, Turkish prime minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan called the Security Council vote an error.

“We would not want to participate in such a mistake because history will not forgive us,” he told a meeting of ministers from the Arab League, Reuters reported.

The sanctions are designed to curb military purchases, trade and financial transactions carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which controls the nuclear program and has taken a more central role in running the country and the economy.

Although Iran insists that its nuclear efforts are strictly for peaceful purposes, its actions have raised suspicions in the West that it Tehran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

The nuclear relationship is governed by formal agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency that provide for inspectors to visit nuclear facilities, such as the main, publicly known enrichment plant at Natanz, and require Iran to notify the nuclear body of its plans to build new facilities.

The agency offered no immediate comment on the Iranian threats.

Western officials familiar with the nuclear debate, who spoke in return for anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said that I.A.E.A. inspectors were currently able to visit Iranian facilities, albeit within a “minimal level” of cooperation.

In the past, the officials said, Iranian threats to downgrade ties to the I.A.E.A. have been followed by measures to curb inspectors’ authority and to slow notification of its intentions. The newest threats could lead to further restrictions on inspectors’ visits, the officials said.

The officials said Western governments believed that Iran might also react to the sanctions by expanding its enrichment process at Natanz, doubling the number of centrifuges producing uranium enriched to 20 percent.

Currently, Iran is using a cascade of 164 centrifuges — machines that enrich, or purify, uranium for use in bombs or reactors — to produce uranium to 20 percent purity. But it has a second cascade of the same size that has not yet been activated, the officials said.

In February, Iran also said it planned to build 10 more nuclear-fuel enrichment plants — two within the next year — and had identified “close to” 20 sites for such facilities.

Earlier this month, I.A.E.A. inspectors reported that Iran has produced over 5,300 pounds of low-enriched uranium, all of which would have to undergo further enrichment before it could be converted to bomb fuel.

Until recently, all of Iran’s uranium had been enriched to only 4 percent, the level needed to run nuclear power reactors. While enrichment to 20 percent purity does not allow Iran to build a weapon, it moves the country closer to that goal.