Dubai: As the international community, including Russia and China, work on tightening the noose on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme in the next few weeks, Tehran continues to downplay warnings of new sanctions.
Many political experts believe more sanctions will backfire and will only serve the current regime in Tehran.
“The Americans have reached the final stage of a compromise with the Chinese,” Mahjoub Zweiri, an expert in Iranian affairs, said.
According to the proposed deal, China will either abstain from voting at the Security Council on a resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran or “will it use its veto power” to obstruct such a resolution, Zweiri, a professor at Qatar University and author of several books on Iran, added.
The current flurry of diplomatic contacts over Iran coincide with the announcement yesterday that Chinese president Hu Jintao will attend a major anti-proliferation summit in Washington this month.
Meanwhile, Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili arrived in Beijing yesterday to discuss the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.
China “will continue to endeavour toward a peaceful resolution,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted as saying. “We have always and will continue to push for a peaceful settlement of this issue,” Qin said, adding that the long-running crisis should be resolved by “diplomatic means”.
Washington, analysts say, also wants to “invest” in the special relationship between Beijing and Tehran.
“The Americans want China to tell Iran that their two countries’ relations are important, but that Beijing has similar interests as the international community, and that the Iranians need to help China for China to help them,” Zweiri said.
Therefore, Tehran is expected to “show more flexibility” towards the offer of major powers over enriching uranium outside Iran.
Focused measures
Russia also is ready to join in international sanctions to prod Iran to come clean on its nuclear ambitions, a foreign ministry official said yesterday.
“Such measures need to be focused and selective in order to achieve the goal of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Andrei Nesterenko said.
Moscow had previously indicated a willingness to go along with sanctions, as long as they do not directly affect the Iranian people.
But many analysts believe sanctions will end up boosting the popularity of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.
