China dampened expectations of further sanctions on Iran on Thursday, telling other major powers that more pressure would not persuade Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
In contrast, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the UN Security Council the world should consider “far tougher sanctions” if Iran continues to seek a nuclear weapon.
Both countries 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 Thursday to demands that it halt its nuclear program, or face the consequences.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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,” Brown told a council meeting on nuclear proliferation chaired by US President Barack Obama.
At the end of the two-hour session, council members unanimously approved a resolution calling for an end to the proliferation of atomic weapons, but did not name Iran or North Korea, which is also in a standoff over its nuclear program.
The US-drafted resolution called for further efforts to achieve “a world without nuclear weapons” and all urged countries to sign the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Obama said he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed this week that additional UN sanctions would be considered if Iran doesn’t respond to proposals to end the nuclear standoff.
“We’ll be particularly telling Iran it’s got a decision to make,” Brown told the BBC before the council 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.”
The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran insists it is limited to the peaceful generation of electricity and has rejected Security Council demands that it suspend sensitive nuclear activities.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS