Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is heading to China this week to discuss the threat of new UN sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said world powers have the necessary votes at the Security Council.
Ahmadinejad will be attending this year’s Shanghai Expo, but will also meet top Chinese officials to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, the threat of sanctions and a fuel swap deal for a Tehran research reactor brokered by Brazil and Turkey last month, Iranian state television reported yesterday.
His visit to Security Council veto-wielding permanent member China takes on particular significance as a vote on a new sanctions package looms after the US introduced a draft resolution last month.
China, which has emerged in recent years as Iran’s main trading partner, continues to insist on diplomacy to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program, but US officials say they have Beijing’s support for the sanctions resolution.
Before heading to China, Ahmadinejad was due to hold a round of meetings in Istanbul where he was attending a regional security and confidence building conference yesterday.
He was expected to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, another Security Council permanent member, media reports said.
He was also due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the nuclear fuel swap deal.
On May 17, Turkey and Brazil brokered a deal with under which Iran agreed to ship 1,200kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium fuel for the Tehran reactor which would be supplied later by Russia and France.
The deal was cold-shouldered immediately by Washington, which has ratcheted up diplomatic pressure for a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran for continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of repeated Security Council ultimatums.
The US secretary of state said yesterday that world powers have the required number of votes to pass the sanctions resolution.
Clinton said she expected Iran would “pull some stunt in the next couple of days” to try to head it off.
“I don’t think anybody should be surprised if they try to divert attention once again from the unity within the Security Council,” the top US diplomat said.
Senior US officials have said they are forging ahead with the resolution without Brazil and Turkey, two non-permanent council members who insist that fresh sanctions would be counter-productive after the nuclear fuel deal they brokered opened up the opportunity for further diplomacy.
Asked if she was worried about opposition to the sanctions resolution among non-permanent members, Clinton said: “We’ll wait and see what happens, but we have the votes.”
US officials say the resolution has the support of all five council permanent members — Britain, France, China, Russia and the US.
For the resolution to pass, Washington will also need the votes of at least four of the 10 non-permanent members.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was