Iran immediately rejected the sanctions Saturday and said it had no intention of suspending its enrichment program, prompting the United States to warn of even tougher penalties.
"The world must know - and it does - that even the harshest political and economic sanctions or other threats are far too weak to coerce the Iranian nation to retreat from their legal and legitimate demands," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottakitold the Security Council after the vote. "Suspension is neither an option nor a solution."
The moderately tougher sanctions include banning Iranian arms exports, and freezing the assets of 28 people and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
About a third of those are linked to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps.
"It's a significant international rebuke to Iran and it's a significant tightening of international pressure on Iran," said Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political affairs at the StateDepartment. If Iran does not comply, "there's no question" that the United States will seek a third and tougher resolution, he added.
In December, the 15-member Security Council ordered all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also ordered a freeze on assets of 10 key Iranian companies and12 individuals related to those programs. Iran responded by expanding enrichment.
Mottaki said Iran would return to negotiations over its nuclear program only if the United States and its European allies dropped the "unfair and unacceptable precondition" that it first suspend uranium enrichment.
But world powers held out hope that Iran would back down before the dispute escalated even further.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said nations involved in the dispute had tasked him to resume contacts with Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani "to see whether we can find a route to negotiations."
"The door to negotiations is open; I hope we can together find a way to go through it," Solana said in statement.
Burns said that because of a "tumultuous politicalenvironment" in Iran "we believe there is a faction inside that government that wishes to accept this offer to negotiate."
He was apparently referring to criticism from some in Iran that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's confrontational rhetoric has deepened the country's isolation. ***
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