The UN Security Council is expected to adopt a third round of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program today while Tehran issued a veiled warning to council members that back the resolution.
Tehran denies Western charges it seeks nuclear weapons and has ignored three previous Security Council resolutions demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment program, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.
The five permanent council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - and Germany, which is not on the council, agreed in Berlin on January 22nd on a draft text outlining a third round of sanctions against Tehran.
Washington had hoped for a swift vote on the sanctions text but negotiations dragged on for a month and a half.
The revision process has reached an end and a meeting of the 15-nation council expected to adopt the resolution opened today.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters in London that the resolution's sponsors were counting on at least 14 "yes" votes, meaning one country might abstain or vote against it.
Iran dismissed the latest sanctions drive as a violation of international law and said it only harmed the Security Council's credibility.
"The credibility of the Security Council ... is readily downgraded to a mere tool of the national foreign policy of just a few countries," Iran's UN ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, told the council as the meeting got under way.
He reiterated Tehran's position that its nuclear program has always been peaceful and that the current and past UN sanctions resolutions against Iran lack any legal basis.
It has been clear since January that the new sanctions would be approved, since they have the backing of all five permanent council members and six non-permanent members.
But the resolution's European co-sponsors - Britain, France and Germany - lobbied four reluctant council members in an attempt to get a unanimous vote and send the strongest possible message to Tehran.