Iran is prepared to confront new sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear programmes, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Wednesday.
"Iran has gained suitable experience in confronting the impacts of sanctions, including a special economic unit," Mottaki told official news agency IRNA.
The UN and the European Union imposed new sanctions due to the Islamic state's refusal to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment programme, DPA reported.
"Seventy per cent of the the sanctions in the last five years have however been more a psychological war," Mottaki said.
"We do not welcome sanctions but we will show decisive resistance and defend our nuclear rights with all our might," he added.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran wants to resume talks in August, but requested that Turkey and Brazil be added to the five permanent UN Security Council member states plus Germany in the negotiations.
Turkey and Brazil were the only two countries that voted against the latest UN sanctions, and also mediated in a deal in last month to swap Iranian low-enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear fuel via Russia and France to be used in Tehran's medical reactor.
Mottaki said Iran was still ready to implement that agreement, which called for Tehran to store 1.2 tons of its LEU in Turkey in exchange for 120 kilograms of nuclear reactor fuel.
Although the swap would not fully settle the questions over Iran's nuclear projects, it was initially proposed last October by the International Atomic Energy Agency and is widely hoped to at least prepare grounds for future negotiations between Iran and the world powers.