- Title: CHINA: Repeats calls for a peaceful resolution to Iran's nuclear standoff
- Date: 14th April 2010
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (APRIL 13, 2010) (REUTERS) CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN JIANG YU WALKING IN FOR REGULAR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN JIANG YU SAYING: "China supports the dual-track approach and believes that dialogue and negotiations are the best way to appropriately resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. Sanctions and pressure cannot essentially solve the problem. We think relevant actions taken by the Security Council should be conducive to easing the situation and pushing forward solving the issue through dialogue and negotiations." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN JIANG YU SAYING: "As a friendly neighbour, we hope all parties in Myanmar can achieve national reconciliation through negotiations, and then gradually achieve stability and development." JOURNALIST NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 29th April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Energy
- Reuters ID: LVAB2AE6ZV7A1D3E8L2029U1KPU1
- Story Text: China repeated its standard call for "dialogue and negotiations" with Iran on Tuesday (April 13), after President Hu Jintao agreed that Beijing would help craft a U.N. resolution at a summit in Washington.
Hu, holding talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in the U.S. capital, made clear on Monday (April 12) that he shared U.S. concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, according to a senior U.S. official.
"China supports the dual track approach and believes that dialogue and negotiations are the best way to appropriately resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. Sanctions and pressure cannot essentially solve the problem. We think relevant actions taken by the Security Council should be conducive to easing the situation and pushing forward solving the issue through dialogue and negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference in Beijing.
The "dual track approach" refers to offering Iran the incentive of negotiations together with the pressure of further sanctions.
Jiang's comments confirmed China's recent decision to join discussions with world powers on Iran but they did not indicate a new willingness to embrace harsher sanctions, such as ones that would target the Islamic Republic's energy sector.
Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build an atomic bomb, is not on the agenda of the summit, but the presence of so many world leaders in one place gave Obama an opportunity to again make his case for fresh sanctions to be imposed on Tehran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
China has close economic ties with Iran and has so far been reluctant to agree to tougher sanctions.
Jiang also announced Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will visit Indonesia, Brunei and military-ruled Myanmar late next week, and meet Myanmar's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe.
Beijing has repeatedly called for national reconciliation within the southwestern neighbour before it holds elections in May.
"As a friendly neighbour, we hope all parties in Myanmar can achieve national reconciliation through negotiations, and then gradually achieve stability and development," said Jiang.
China is the former Burma's most important diplomatic backer, and is a top military supplier to a government reviled in the West for its continued detention of pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Her National League for Democracy, which won the last election in 1990 by a landslide but was denied power by the army, is boycotting this one. That move could make it difficult for the junta to portray the polls as free, fair, inclusive and credible.
Myanmar's election has been widely dismissed as a sham aimed at prolonging five decades of iron-fisted army rule by effectively allowing the military to pull the strings in a civilian-fronted government.
The junta has yet to publicly reveal the election date.
China's overriding concern is a stable Myanmar to give its landlocked southwest access to the Indian Ocean, as well as oil, gas and timber to feed the booming Chinese economy. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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