Iran says it expects end to Security Council involvement in its nuclear file

Tehran expects the U.N. Security Council to close the file on its nuclear activities once it has answered all questions about its past atomic programs, a senior Iranian envoy said Thursday, in an indirect challenge to the U.S.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, also urged Washington to "come out of ... isolation" and recognize that Tehran is cooperating fully with an IAEA probe into its past.

"The policy of the carrot and the stick ... (has) always been counterproductive," he said of a U.S.-led push for a third set of U.N. sanctions over his country's refusal to give up uranium …