Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has voted to speed up debate of a bill that would force the government to scale back its cooperation with U.N. nuclear inspectors.
The official IRNA news agency says parliament passed the motion Wednesday, with 162 lawmakers voting in favor, 42 against and 15 abstaining.
The vote comes after last week's International Atomic Energy Agency resolution, which puts Iran on notice that it could be referred to the U.N. Security Council if it fails to cooperate fully with IAEA inspectors.
Iran has threatened several retaliatory moves, including suspension of a protocol that allows unannounced IAEA inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran has also threatened to scale back trade ties with countries that supported the IAEA resolution.
The United States and several western countries accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
