Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday hailed Venezuela's opposition to the recent UN nuclear watchdog resolution on Iran as "brave and judicious", the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

"The vote shows the depth of the two countries' brotherly and friendly ties," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez.

The 35-member Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday adopted a resolution presented by the European Union on Iran's nuclear case by a vote of 22 to 1 with 12 abstentions. Venezuela cast the only blackball.

The IAEA resolution, which was rejected by Tehran as illegal and unacceptable, accuses Iran of breaching international nuclear safeguards and committing suspicious nuclear activities which had "given rise to questions that are within the competence of the UN Security Council".

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad highly praised Venezuela's efforts to rally South American states behind Iran, saying the measure had led to "a wider debate in the international community on the rights of suppressed nations".

The president also said the IAEA resolution was a "violation of all IAEA rules and regulations" and stressed that Iran would never accept anything which ignores international law.

Iran and Venezuela are both key oil producers and hostile to the United States.

Source: Xinhua