UNITED NATIONS – China dampened expectations of further sanctions on Iran yesterday, telling other major powers that putting even more pressure on Tehran would not persuade it to halt its nuclear programme.
In contrast, British prime minister Gordon Brown told the UN Security Council the world should consider “far tougher sanctions” against Iran if it continues to seek a nuclear weapon.
Both countries had signed a letter on Wednesday in which the five permanent members of the security council and Germany told Iran to prepare a “serious response” by October 1st to demands that it halt its nuclear programme, or face the consequences.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the US are the permanent members of the 15-nation security council.
“As evidence of its breach of international agreements grows, we must now consider far tougher sanctions together,” Mr Brown told a security council summit on nuclear proliferation.
In his first speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, US president Barack Obama urged leaders to join him in confronting world issues, including Iran’s nuclear plans.
Mr Obama has also said he and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev agreed this week that further UN sanctions would be considered if Iran fails to respond to proposals to end a nuclear standoff.
“We’ll be particularly telling Iran it’s got a decision to make,” Mr Brown said before the meeting.
“It can work with the international community, we can help it get civil nuclear power, but if it persists with this course, it’s going to be isolated from the whole international community.”
French president Nicolas Sarkozy told the UN forum he favoured dialogue with Tehran, but time for talk was limited.
“There comes a time when stubborn facts will compel us to take a decision if we want a world without nuclear weapons.”
China, which imports large amounts of crude oil from Iran and has traditionally been ambivalent about bringing international pressure to bear on other nations, signalled it would be uneasy with a heavy-handed approach.
“We believe that sanctions and exerting pressure are not the way to solve problems and are not conducive for the current diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.
Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi repeated China’s stance that the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme was best resolved peacefully through dialogue. – (Reuters)