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Iran urged to suspend uranium enrichment
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-21 19:02 Iran should suspend all uranium enrichment, China
said on Tuesday, as Russian and Iranian nuclear negotiators prepared for a
second day of talks over a compromise to defuse the deepening international
standoff.
"Given current developments, China hopes Iran will restore suspension of all
activities relating to uranium enrichment and create the conditions for
appropriately resolving the Iran nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations,"
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.
Iran and Russia are discussing Moscow's offer to enrich uranium for Iranian
power plants on Russian soil and so defuse the row over Iran's nuclear
ambitions.
It was China's baldest call yet for Iran to accept U.S. and EU demands to
halt uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for power plants or weapons.
Iran recently announced it was resuming enrichment work and has said it is
interested only in civilian nuclear power. But the United States and European
Union say Iran's programme is clearly aimed at eventually making atomic weapons.
Washington and the EU trio of Britain, France and Germany may refer Iran to
the U.N. Security Council for sanctions after the U.N. nuclear watchdog reports
on Iran on March 6.
Liu, the spokesman, said China would continue meeting the contending
countries to encourage diplomatic compromise, and said Iran should abide by
international nuclear safeguards.
"The international non-proliferation regime should be upheld, and as a
Non-Proliferation Treaty member state, Iran has a responsibility and duty to
carry out its commitments," he said, adding that Iran also had a right to
peaceful nuclear power.
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