Saturday, November 17, 2007

China deals blow to Western efforts to punish Iran

Excerpt


China has dealt a blow to Western efforts to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme by dropping out of a meeting to discuss tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Russia, which like China opposes further UN sanctions against Iran,added fuel to the fire by announcing on Friday that the UN nuclearwatchdog would soon start inspecting and sealing atomic fuel boundfor an Iranian reactor.

The West fears Iran wants to develop atomic weapons but Iran deniesthis. Tehran says it wants only to generate electricity.

Political directors from Britain, France, Germany, the United States,Russia and China were due to meet on November 19 to assess reportsabout Tehran's nuclear programme from the United Nations and fromEU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
"I think it's partly related to genuine travel difficulties, but alsolinked to resistance on the broader question of sanctions from thatquarter," a European diplomatic source said of China's decision.

Russian state-owned nuclear fuel producer TVEL said inspectors fromthe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will begin preparatorywork on November 26 until November 29 on a shipment of nuclear fuelbound for the Bushehr nuclear plant.

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