China Tells Obama To F- Off On Iran
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WASHINGTON — China said Tuesday sanctions were not the answer to the Iranian atomic standoff, denting US President Barack Obama’s hopes of sealing a deal to punish Tehran as he hosted a summit on nuclear arms.
Obama was expected to urge world leaders to harden their resolve to lock down nuclear material on the second day of a 47-nation summit in Washington aimed at keeping atomic weapons out of terrorist hands.
However the conference threatened to be overshadowed by growing tension on Iran, which the United States and its allies accuse of covertly working on a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is pursuing only civilian power.
The two-day gathering saw Obama meet Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao and others in consultations he described as “impressive”, buoyed by Ukraine’s renouncement of its bomb-grade uranium.
“I think it’s an indication of how deeply concerned everybody should be with the possibilities of nuclear traffic,” Obama told reporters.
A top White House official said Obama and Hu agreed their delegations would work together at the United Nations on a push to impose sanctions against Iran.
“They are prepared to work with us,” said Jeff Bader, Obama’s top official responsible for East Asia on the National Security Council.
“The two presidents agreed the two delegations should work together on sanctions.”
However China, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, undercut hopes for a consensus when it said sanctions were not a solution.
“China always believes that dialog and negotiation are the best way out for the issue. Pressure and sanctions cannot fundamentally solve it,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
Jiang said China backs a “dual-track strategy” — continued dialog with Tehran while considering the possibility of sanctions if that fails to halt sensitive nuclear work.
Iran also denied any suggestion that China was now backing the US stance.
“We have a different understanding than yours of the comments made after the meeting of US and Chinese officials,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in Tehran when asked to react to US claims of a breakthrough.
Mehmanparast said foreign ministers from 15 countries would take part in a two-day nuclear disarmament conference to be held in Tehran on April 17 and 18.
Like China, Russia was initially skeptical about new sanctions on Iran, but moved towards the US position more quickly than Beijing.
President Dmitry Medvedev however told US television that sanctions on Iranian energy products preferred by some members of Congress could cause a humanitarian disaster.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not attending the summit, nor was North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il, whose country has vowed to strengthen its own atomic arsenal in defiance of international pressure.
Another notable absentee was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who dropped plans to attend, reportedly because of concern that Islamic states planned to press for Israel to open its own nuclear facilities to international inspection.
The first day was marked by a pledge by the ex-Soviet republic of Ukraine, site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, that it would give up 90 kilos (180 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, equating to several bombs.
Canada and Chile made similar promises on their own smaller stockpiles.
But Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who controls the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear arsenal, rebuffed calls to halt production of fissile material and insisted his country needed a deterrent against India.
On Tuesday, the United States and Russia were to sign an accord on tidying up plutonium reserves. The deal spells out elimination of the countries’ excess plutonium stores — enough “for several thousand nuclear weapons,” according to the State Department.
The goal of the summit is to make sure that worldwide stocks of separated plutonium and enriched uranium are destroyed or accounted for and therefore unable to fall into the hands of militant groups.
Obama’s top terrorism advisor John Brennan warned that Al-Qaeda’s interest in nuclear weapons was “strong” and said the risk of nuclear terrorism was “real,” “serious” and “growing.”
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