UNITED NATIONS — Despite the departure of its ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, America is drawing fire at the U.N. Security Council. Several council members accused Washington’s U.N. representatives yesterday of provoking anger in an undiplomatic manner, possibly harming negotiations on a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran.

The Security Council had just wrapped up a debate on Lebanon and the Ivory Coast last night and some members were planning a separate discussion on Iran when an American representative, William Brencick, raised the issue of recent human rights violations in Belarus, a Russian neighbor and ally.

His remarks prompted the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, to storm out of the meeting, saying he would not join the talks on Iran and that he needed “some time for reflection” and had “decided to relax a bit.” Asked why the consultations on Iran should not take place as scheduled, he said, “Because I said so.”

Another Russian diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Russian mission had hoped that after Mr. Bolton’s exit, the atmosphere on the council would improve and be less confrontational. “But these guys are even worse than Bolton,” the Russian said of the American diplomats.

According to several American diplomats, Washington had been planning for some time to raise Belarus at the council. The diplomats denied that they had done it yesterday merely to provoke the Russians amid delicate negotiations on Iran.

“That’s ridiculous,” the ranking diplomat at the American mission since the departure of Mr. Bolton, Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, said.

But some members of the council expressed skepticism. When the council members are about to discuss Iran, “we should stick to core issues,” the French ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said, citing Lebanon, the Ivory Coast, and Darfur as examples.

Belarus “is a horrible dictatorship in the middle of Europe,” the spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Richard Grenell, said. “We have to discuss these issues, and everybody on the council should be discussing them.”

Russia’s outburst yesterday followed consultations on Iran among the five permanent council members and Germany on Monday. At those consultations, Mr. Churkin said he could not respond to a European proposal for a resolution that contained mild sanctions until getting further instructions from Moscow. Mr. Churkin’s deputy, Konstantin Dulgov, said yesterday that the consultations on Iran “most likely” will resume today.

But a group of Arab countries, the Gulf Cooperation Council, announced yesterday that it planned to raise Israel’s nuclear program at the Security Council, after Prime Minister Olmert’s indicated, in a German TV appearance, that Israel possesses nuclear arms.

Israel said it has not changed its nuclear policy, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said yesterday. Asked if the issue could delay the council’s talks on Iran’s nuclear program, he added, “I’m not going to try to draw any equivalence between Iran’s behavior and any other state.”