Russia has rejected a new draft EU resolution on the Iran nuclear issue that takes out the words of reporting the issue to the U.N Security Council, a diplomat in Vienna said on Thursday.

Russia said the new draft is not acceptable, revealed the diplomat, who declines to notify his name.

On Thursday, the European Union (EU), represented by Germany, France and Britain, tabled a new draft resolution, which backed away from its demand for referring Iran's nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council.

However, the EU insisted Iran has violated the safeguard obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), for which Iran could be reported to the UN Security Council in accordance with Article 12 of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Statute.

Because of this, the diplomat said Russia believed that a report to the U.N. top decision body would be inevitable if the new resolution is approved by the IAEA board.

In the meantime, sources said the United States and Japan also expressed displeasure to the new resolution.

"The U.S. and Japan are still firm on their position to report the Iran case to the U.N.," said the source.

Source: Xinhua