February 5, 2010
By ALAN COWELL
PARIS — Reflecting a growing catalog of disputes between Washington and Beijing, a senior Chinese official said Thursday that pressure for tighter sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program could block chances of a diplomatic settlement on the issue.
The official, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, was speaking in Paris less than a week after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked China over its opposition to stronger measures against Tehran, saying Beijing’s position was shortsighted.
In recent days, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been reported to be reiterating support for a deal under which Iran would allow its low-enriched nuclear fuel to be exported for processing into nuclear fuel rods — prompting some skepticism in Europe and the United States.
“Iran has to be measured by its actions, not by what it says,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany said Wednesday.
The issue also arose during a visit to Paris by Mr. Yang, who was quoted on Thursday as telling reporters, “To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution.”
His remarks, quoted by Reuters, seemed a direct rebuff of efforts by the United States to secure broad international support for tougher penalties against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the West accuses of running a covert nuclear arms program. Tehran says the program is for peaceful civilian purposes only.
“China firmly supports the international nuclear nonproliferation regime,” Mr. Yang said. “All countries, Iran included if they obey I.A.E.A. rules, have a right to a peaceful use of nuclear energy.” The I.A.E.A. — the International Atomic Energy Agency — is the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, based in Vienna.
The differences over Iran coincide with a plethora of other disputes. In recent days, China has objected to plans by President Obama to meet with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, and to American weapons sales to Taiwan. Mrs. Clinton has also criticized China for censoring the Internet and the United States has challenged China on trade and financial issues.
The latest Iranian moves in the nuclear dispute have puzzled some of the Western countries — the United States, Britain, France and Germany — that with China and Russia form a group of countries seeking to end the standoff.
“I am perplexed and even a little pessimistic,” the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said Wednesday, referring to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s reported offer to meet the demand for low-enriched uranium to be exported for processing.
News reports quoted the Iranian leader as saying on Tuesday: “There is really no problem. Some made a fuss for nothing. There is no problem.” But while Western experts say it would take a year to complete enrichment, Mr. Ahmadinejad said it would take “four or five months.”
Some Western officials said Mr. Ahmadinejad might be trying to buy time or dilute pressure for tougher penalties imposed by the United Nations. His remarks seemed to contradict earlier Iranian statements rejecting the deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad, and they did not address a dispute over how it should be sent: either in a single batch, as international powers want, or in several, smaller batches, as Iran wishes.
In Vienna the atomic agency said it would not comment on Mr. Ahmadinejad’s offer. Diplomats with knowledge of the situation said Iran had not formally confirmed its position to the agency.
Pressure on Currency Resisted
BEIJING — A senior Chinese official said Thursday that China would not bow to pressure from the United States to revalue its currency, which President Obama says is kept at an artificially low value to give China an unfair advantage in selling its exports.
The official, Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference that “wrongful accusations and pressure will not help solve this issue.”
Mr. Ma was reacting to remarks on trade that Mr. Obama made on Wednesday in Washington. Mr. Obama stopped short of saying China manipulated its currency, but he said that the United States had “to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are not artificially deflated in price; that puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage.”
Steven Erlanger and Nadim Audi contributed reporting.
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