Cleric says U.N. cannot stop Iran's nuclear work

The United Nations cannot push Iran into abandoning its nuclear work, an influential cleric said on Friday. "Islamic Iran will not be deprived from its obvious nuclear right, even by a resolution by an useless U.N. Security Council," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, broadcast live on state radio. Key U.N. Security Council members have informally agreed on a resolution that includes the threat of sanctions if Iran fails to halt all uranium enrichment-related and plutonium reprocessing activities, Western diplomats said on Thursday. The draft text must first be approved by governments of the five Security Council members with veto power -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- as well as Germany, a European negotiator on the Iran controversy. Measures such as imposing U.N. sanctions on Iran are not backed by veto-wielding Russia and China. Russia is helping Iran build its first atomic power station at the Gulf port of Bushehr and is interested in further nuclear cooperation with the oil-rich state.