Iran slams US sanctions drive, China backs dialogue

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on Friday criticised a US drive to impose sanctions over its atomic programme, and claimed support from Beijing ahead of crunch high-level talks next week.

Addressing reporters after talks with Chinese officials, Jalili said Iran and China, which has growing energy ties with the Islamic republic, were both against sanctions.
"Concerning the Iranian nuclear issue, we have a lot of areas where we are in agreement. We have a common view on sanctions, proliferation and the right for every nation to peacefully use nuclear energy," he said.

"These are the three basic common positions that we agree on and we have had a good exchange of views on how to realise these goals."

He refused to say what position China would take in talks on a proposed new UN resolution on Iran when the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Germany meet in Berlin next week.

China routinely calls for further talks rather than aggressive UN action, and following talks with Jalili, China's foreign policy chief Tang Jiaxuan, a member of the State Council, or cabinet, suggested there was no change in that position.

"The international community should beef up diplomatic efforts to facilitate the resumption of negotiations and achieve a comprehensive settlement of the issue," he said, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

Jalili accused the United States of using the sanctions threat as a domestic election ploy, in remarks through a Chinese translation.

"These proposals, plans and dramas are all for the US domestic elections and some nations are viewing these mistaken US unilateral actions with a cold eye," he said.

Jalili, regarded as more hardline than his predecessor whom he replaced in October, is a close ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He arrived Thursday in Beijing in an apparent effort to get China's support to reject any proposed resolution.

The European Union troika of Britain, France and Germany have been leading efforts to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment to prove that it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies Western charges that it is seeking nuclear arms, insisting its programme is peaceful and aimed at providing civilian energy.

"The Iranian nuclear issue is now at a crucial moment," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Jalili in a meeting earlier Thursday, according to remarks posted by the foreign ministry.
"China hopes all concerned parties, including Iran, make joint efforts to resume negotiations as soon as possible in a bid to promote the comprehensive and proper settlement of this issue."
Yang met Jalili one day after separate talks with visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is seeking Chinese support for a new resolution that would contain binding sanctions.

Negroponte said he would continue that push during twice-yearly high-level bilateral talks being held Friday in southwestern China's Guizhou city.
Last week, after the head of the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Tehran, Iran agreed to clear up all outstanding issues about its programme within four weeks.

Despite a four-year probe, the IAEA has so far been unable to determine if the programme is peaceful.

Negroponte told reporters Thursday that UN-backed sanctions were necessary as Iran had refused to suspend uranium enrichment, in line with an existing UN resolution.
China has urged Tehran to comply with the existing resolution but has not revealed whether it will support a new one.