China yesterday urged Iran to heed rising international concern about its nuclear ambitions, saying Beijing would seek to work with Europe and the UN to defuse the crisis.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country's nuclear program was irreversible, showing continued defiance in the face of possible new UN sanctions.
He claimed that Iran now had 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium in its Natanz nuclear plant. Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, act as material for bombs.
The number is a milestone because scientists say that in ideal conditions it is sufficient to produce enough enriched uranium in one year to make a single nuclear bomb.
Ahmadinejad has made the centrifuge claim previously, but his latest statement has been seen by some parties, particularly the US, as especially provocative as tensions have spiked recently over the issue.
Iran says its intentions are peaceful, but Western powers say the Islamic state wants the ability to make nuclear weapons and they have warned Tehran to obey a UN call to halt enrichment.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has the power to pass or veto any fresh sanctions on Tehran, but -- without outright excluding them -- Beijing has repeatedly said that negotiations can still solve the standoff.
Repeating that call for dialogue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (
"We demand that Iran positively respond and pay attention to international concerns and calls and adopt a flexible attitude to solve the problem peacefully through dialogue and communication," Liu told a regular news conference when asked about Ahmadinejad's comments and possible sanctions.
Liu did not directly address the sanctions issue, merely saying that China was "willing to cooperate and communicate with the United Nations and the European Union to move in the right direction."
On Wednesday Ahmadinejad declared that Iran "couldn't care less" about UN sanction threats.
"We have taken note of the developments and we request Iran to positively respond and attach importance to the concerns of the international community," Liu said.
The US is pressing for tough new UN sanctions and has not ruled out a military strike on Iran, while Ahmadinejad recently said any such strike would face a strong response and threatened Iran could cut off Persian Gulf oil shipments.
Although it opposes a nuclear-armed Iran, energy-hungry China has consistently opposed tough action against the Mideast state.
Iran's standoff with the West has left China in a bind as Beijing seeks to balance ties with both sides.
Iran is China's third biggest supplier of imported crude oil, behind Angola and Saudi Arabia, and China also has major investments in Iran.
Also seeIsraeli official calls for ElBaradei to be fired from UN post
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese