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US steps up diplomatic pressure on China over Iran sanctions

03 March 2010 19:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The US sent top officials to Beijing on Wednesday to step up a campaign to persuade China to drop its opposition to fresh UN sanctions against Iran, APA reports quoting â€œThe Telegraphâ€ newspaper.
Chinese and Russian opposition derailed attempts to impose across-the-board financial and trade sanctions on Iran to punish Tehran for its nuclear programme. But in recent days Moscow has signalled its readiness to back measures targeting the Iranian regime and its central bank.
James Steinberg, the deputy Secretary of State, went to Beijing on a fence-mending mission to garner support for the robust measures. Prospects of a deal with China have been hampered by disputes between Washington and Beijing over internet censorship, trade, arms sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, conceded the timetable for imposing strong sanctions had slipped by forecasting on Wednesday that a resolution could take three months to emerge.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear inspections body, bolstered the case for sanctions by expressing alarm in a damning new report that Iran had moved closer to the nuclear threshold by enriching uranium to 20 per cent with precipitous speed in recent weeks.
It also said that it suspected Iran was attempting to "weaponise" its atomic stockpile.
Iran has spurned attempts to use an IAEA-sponsored offer of uranium processing overseas to power its only functioning nuclear reactor.
Even if Mr Steinberg is successful in Beijing, however, the US and its allies will still face reluctance over the Iran sanctions.
Brazil on Wednesday renewed opposition to fresh sanctions on Iran, dealing a blow to visiting Mrs Clinton even before she could make the case for new penalties.
Ahead of his meeting with Mrs Clinton, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, warned the world not to "push Iran into a corner" over its nuclear programme."