Russia and China made it clear yesterday that they did not favor UN sanctions to induce Iran to scale back its nuclear program, preferring more negotiations.
Their comments revealed a continuing lack of consensus among world powers over whether the UN Security Council should take up Iran's case and what action it should consider.
Germany earlier said council members remained at odds on the Iranian nuclear issue after talks in London on Monday.
Meanwhile, an Iranian source in Vienna said yesterday that Iran had urged the EU trio of Britain, Germany and France (EU3) in a letter to immediately return to the negotiating table.
The source said Iran had written to the EU3 and emphasized Iran's willingness to "remove existing ambiguities regarding its peaceful nuclear program through talks and negotiations."
The source said the letter, written by Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was designed to show that "despite the London meeting, Iran is determined to continue talks and to find a solution through talks."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan (孔泉) said his country favoured EU diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
"We hope the Iranian side can cooperate with the efforts by the international community to restart the diplomatic negotiations and resolve the nuclear issue properly," said Kong, whose country gets 12 percent of its oil imports from Iran.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
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