VIENNA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog board censured Iran on Friday over mounting suspicions it is trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran said the move would only strengthen its determination to press on with sensitive work.
Almost unanimously, the agency's 35-nation board passed a resolution expressing "increasing concern" about Iran's nuclear programme, after a U.N. report last week said the Islamic state appeared to have worked on designing an atom bomb.
In Washington, officials spoke out harshly against Iran while sources familiar with the matter said the United States was planning sanctions on Iran's petrochemical industry that could be unveiled as early as Monday.
The sources, who spoke on condition that they not be named, said Washington wanted to send a strong message to Tehran and was looking to find a way to block foreign companies from aiding Iran's petrochemical industry with the threat of depriving them of access to the U.S. market.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the U.N. resolution exposed the "hollowness of Iran's claims" that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful. He said the United States would continue to pressure Tehran, in part through sanctions.
"The whole world now knows that Iran not only sought to hide its uranium enrichment program from the world for more than two decades, but also engaged in covert research and development related to activities that can have only one application: building a nuclear warhead," Carney said.
And in a further sign of Tehran's worsening ties with the U.N. body, an Iranian official said Iran would boycott rare Middle East nuclear talks hosted by the IAEA next week. "Iran will not bow to pressure," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
But the compromise text - adopted by 32 votes for and only Cuba and Ecuador against - omitted any concrete punitive steps, reflecting Russian and Chinese opposition to cornering Iran. Indonesia abstained in the vote.
Moscow's and Beijing's reluctance to further punish Iran, a major oil producer, makes clear Western states will have to act on their own if they want to tighten sanctions on the country.
That in turn is likely to disappoint Israel, which has not ruled out military action against its arch-foe if diplomatic means fail to stop a nuclear programme which the Jewish state sees as an existential threat.
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