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China blocking US anti-Iran efforts
Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:07:03 GMT Press TV

Bushehr nuclear power plant
China has hampered US efforts to convene permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany to discuss new sanctions against Iran.

For more than a week, US President George W. Bush’s administration has been trying to hold a conference call on the Islamic Republic.

But the efforts have been hampered by Beijing’s refusal to join the talks, US officials and diplomats said.

The officials said China refuses to support US efforts against Iran in order to retaliate the American proposal to sell $6.5 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan. Beijing however has not provided any reason for blocking the talks.

Washington, Tel Aviv and their European allies continue to accuse Iran, a signatory of the NPT, of seeking an atomic weapon, although their allegations are refuted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In its latest report, the UN body, which has conducted a record number of inspections in Iran, confirmed ‘the non-diversion’ of declared nuclear material in the Islamic Republic and reported that no ‘components of a nuclear weapon’ or ‘related nuclear physics studies’ had been found in the country.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic will have ‘counterproductive’ results. In a meeting with Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, Lavrov said: “Iran’s nuclear issue needs to be solved diplomatically.”