US-China differences set to scupper agreement on Iran sanctions

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Iran has insisted on pushing ahead with its nuclear programSix of the world's most powerful countries are set to meet soon to discuss Iran's refusal to accept a deal over its nuclear program. But the United States and China don't agree at all on how Tehran should be treated.

The so-called P5+1 nations (UN Security Council permanent members the US, Russia, China, Britain and France together with Germany) are set to meet later this week to discuss Iran's failure to agree to a solution that would assuage concerns about Tehran's nuclear program.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the six powers would convene in New York, probably on Saturday, to debate "the kind and degree of sanctions we should be exploring."

The meeting has been called after Tehran did not meet a deadline set by the US at the end of 2009 to accept a deal that would have seen uranium being taken out of Iran and returned as enriched fuel rods needed in the production of nuclear energy.

Despite denials from the Iranian government, the US suspects Tehran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Washington would like to see sanctions imposed to force Iran to comply with desires for transparency.

But chances of any progress toward such punitive measures are slim. China, in particular, does not see eye to eye with the US on the potential threat posed by Iran.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The P5+1 came up with a deal last fall, but Tehran refused it
"China does not share the international community's dramatic interpretation of Iran's nuclear program that has Iran building a nuclear bomb," the former director of the GIGA Institute for Near Eastern Studies, Udo Steinbach, told Deutsche Welle.

The Chinese leadership is also no great believer in sanctions in general.

"China is traditionally very hesitant in this regard," the director of the China program at the German Society for Foreign Policy, Eberhard Sandschneider, told Deutsche Welle. "They believe much more in a negotiated settlement."

And indeed the question of sanctions is not the only issue on which Beijing is closer to Tehran than to Washington.
<SNIP>http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5115776,00.html

They ship toxic waste to us, and they won't even agree with who we want to kill next.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.