Iran has called on the West to stop “threatening” Tehran over its disputed atomic energy programme, as Barack Obama personally urged China’s President to join international forces in imposing sanctions.

By Peter Foster in Beijing

Source:

April 2, 2010

Speaking after two days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Beijing, Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili promised that a fresh round of UN sanctions would not be effective in curbing its nuclear ambitions.

“Many issues came up in talks on which China accepted Iran’s position,” said Mr Jalili, “We jointly emphasised during our talks that these sanctions tools have lost their effectiveness.”

His remarks came a day after the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, announced that China had finally agreed to enter into “serious negotiations” over new UN sanctions after months of diplomatic stalling.

Asked if China backs sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, Mr Jalili said: “It’s up to China to answer that.”

The pressure on Iran appeared to build further following a rare, hour-long conversation between and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Mr Obama “underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations,” the White House said following the conversation late on Thursday which delayed his flight on Air Force One by 15 minutes.

Speaking after their conversation, Mr Obama said: “I have said before that we don’t take any options off the table, and we’re going to continue to ratchet up the pressure and examine how they respond.

“But we’re going to do so with a unified international community – that puts us in a much stronger position.”

He said: “All the evidence indicates that the Iranians are trying to develop the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. They might decide that, once they have that capacity that they’d hold off right at the edge – in order not to incur – more sanctions.

“But, if they’ve got nuclear weapons-building capacity – and they are flouting international resolutions, that creates huge destabilising effects in the region and will trigger an arms race in the Middle East that is bad for US national security but is also bad for the entire world.”

Mr Hu has also agreed to attend an international nuclear security summit in Washington this month, which is expected to provide a further opportunity for the Obama administration to push nuclear non-proliferation agenda.

Negotiations over the details of further possible sanctions against Iran are expected to begin in New York next week.

Although China has apparently agreed to begin talks on sanctions, diplomats cautioned that China would seek to water-down any measures that might impact its economic interests in Iran which is a key strategic partner in the Middle East.

Yang Jiechi, China’s Foreign Minister, called for “flexibility” during talks with Mr Jalili, the official Xinhua news agency reported, in a further sign that China will not bow completely to demands from the US, France, Britain and Germany for a tough line against Tehran.

Iran says that its nuclear programme is peaceful and intended for generating electricity, a claim rejected by the US and its allies who say it is a covert attempt to manufacture materials for a nuclear bomb.

Diplomats say that China’s own patience with Iran has been tested by Tehran’s refusal to back a UN offer to reprocess low-enriched Iranian nuclear fuel in France and Russia for use in its ageing research reactor.

Both Russia and China have reportedly urged Iran to accept the scheme as a gesture of goodwill, but Mr Jalili repeated Tehran’s rejection of the offer in Beijing yesterday. “The logic of this remains unacceptable to the international community,” he said.