Global Security Newswire

China should weigh its immediate interest in buying Iranian petroleum against the proliferation threat created by a nuclear-armed Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday (see GSN, Jan. 29).

Clinton's comments marked the Obama administration's highest-profile request to date for China to endorse new U.N. Security Council sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation. Washington and its allies suspect that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at weapons development, a charge Tehran has consistently denied. Beijing has called for a negotiated settlement to the dispute while indicating it would not support new international sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to halt the controversial work.

"As we move away from the engagement track, which has not produced the results that some had hoped for, and move forward toward the pressure and sanctions track" in attempting to resolve the nuclear dispute, "China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing impact that a nuclear-armed Iran would have in the Gulf, from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supplies," Clinton said during a speech in Paris, according to the Washington Post.

"It will produce an arms race," Clinton recounted telling Chinese officials. "Israel will feel an existential threat. All of that is incredibly dangerous."

"We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs," she said. "But think about the long-term implications."

Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi failed to reach agreement on the matter during a 45-minute discussion Friday, administration officials said, adding that the top U.S. diplomat had "made very clear" that Iran's failure to accept a U.N. compromise proposal necessitated new economic penalties.

Iran rejected key terms of the U.N. plan, which sought to forestall the nation's ability to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon by refining a large portion of its low-enriched uranium in other countries for use at a medical research reactor in Tehran. The Middle Eastern state has only offered to give up small quantities of its low-enriched uranium at a time in simultaneous exchanges for pre-enriched medical reactor fuel (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Jan. 29).

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano held out hope last week that the sides could still reach agreement over the proposal, the Associated Press reported.

"I hope the agreement will be reached, and I continue to work as an intermediary," he said Friday (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 29).

Iran said that talks with French and Brazilian representatives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had produced new recommendations on the U.N. plan, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday.

"Following discussions with French and Brazilian officials, new ideas with regard to supplying fuel for the Tehran (research) reactor have been raised," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to Iranian state media.

"We hope that the other side (the Western powers) will be realistic, so that a clear result can be achieved," Mottaki said.

Tehran agrees with the "significant principle of the fuel swap," but "it is still waiting for strong and reliable guarantees for this swap," said Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Jan. 30).

Russia, which has also opposed some past calls for punitive action in the nuclear dispute, on Friday criticized Tehran for recent moves to expand its uranium enrichment program, a process that can produce civilian nuclear reactor fuel as well as nuclear-weapon material

"The decision to begin unilateral further enrichment of uranium in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and IAEA decisions will only deepen existing concerns and hinder the speedy resolution of the situation around the Iranian nuclear program," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Jan. 29).

Meanwhile, Iran brushed off U.S. Senate legislation passed last week that would seek to staunch the flow of imported gasoline to the country, AFP reported.

"If the U.S. administration acts on the Senate's approval to increase pressure on the Iranian people, the Iranian people will not give up on their essential rights," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the newspaper Donyaye Eqtesad.

"Such methods will not help build confidence between the two countries," the spokesman said. He added: "Over the past 31 years ... [U.S. sanctions] have only strengthened our people's will for independence" (Agence France-Presse III/Spacewar.com, Jan. 30).

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called Friday for the U.N. Security Council to again take up the nuclear dispute, Reuters reported.

"We are worried about what's happening in Iran. I'm disappointed at the failure of Iran to accept the dialogue and we now need to look again at what needs to happen there," Ashton said.

"The next step for us is to take our discussions into the Security Council. When I was meeting with Hillary Clinton last week we talked about Iran and we were very clear this is a problem we will have to deal with," she said. "We need to now look at the most effective way of doing so" (Stefano Ambrogi, Reuters, Jan. 31).

Israeli President Shimon Peres underscored the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran while meeting with Amano, Ynetnews reported.

"Nuclear weapons in the hands of a fanatical regime such as Iran's pose a threat not only to Israel but to the entire world," he said (Roni Sofer, Ynetnews, Jan. 30).