Clinton seeks Saudi help to win China's backing on Iran sanctions

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Terwijl de USA wapens levert aan Taiwan, wordt er wel om medewerking
gevraagd van China om effectieve sancties tegen Iran te krijgen.
China betrekt o.a. olie van Iran en de Saudis zouden die leveranties dan
moeten overnemen.
Dus de Chinezen wordt gevraagd om zich afhankelijk te maken van de
Saudis. Geen goed alternatief voor hun, immers de Saudis doen (bijna)
alles om het de Amerikanen naar de zin te maken.

Groet / Cees

Clinton seeks Saudi help to win China's backing on Iran sanctions
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=111771
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Monday, February 15, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to the Gulf on Sunday to seek
oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s help in pressing China to join the US drive for
sanctions against Iran, aides said. The US chief diplomat’s three-day
trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia is also aimed at enlisting broader
regional support, including Turkey’s, in a drive to stop Iran’s
sensitive nuclear work, her aides told reporters.

While in Doha on the first leg of her trip, Clinton urged Iran to
reconsider its “dangerous” nuclear policy, saying Tehran’s stance leaves
the world little choice but to impose “greater costs.”

“Iran leaves the international community little choice but to impose
greater costs for its provocative steps. Together, we are encouraging
Iran to reconsider its dangerous policy decisions,” Clinton said in a
speech prepared for delivery in the Qatari capital.

“We are now working actively with our regional and international
partners, in the context of our dual track approach, to prepare and
implement new measures to convince Iran to change its course,” Clinton
said, speaking at a US-Islamic World Forum in Doha.

Clinton’s mission comes amid a US security buildup involving the
deployment of anti-missile systems to the Gulf as well as a flurry of
visits to the region by senior US diplomats and military officials.

Clinton’s aides neither confirmed nor denied suggestions that they would
ask Saudi leaders to offer China, which imports much of its oil from
Iran, supply guarantees in return for Beijing’s support for new UN
sanctions.

“Saudi Arabia has an important trading relationship with China already,”
Jeffrey Feltman, Clinton’s top assistant for the Middle East, told
reporters en route to Doha, via Shannon, Ireland. Feltman noted that
there have been a number of recent visits between the Gulf and China.

“We would expect them [the Saudis] to use these visits, to use their
relationship in ways that can help increase the pressure that Iran
feels,” said Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near East
Affairs.

US President Barack Obama has made little headway in his effort to
persuade Iran to rein in a civil nuclear program which the West, as well
as many Arab states, suspect is a cover to develop atomic weapons.

The United States is leading a push for the UN Security Council to
impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, which says its nuclear
program is to generate electricity so it can export more of its valuable
oil and gas.

Iran, which rejects accusations of seeking to build a nuclear bomb, said
last Tuesday that it has started the process of producing 20-percent
enriched uranium, defying Western threats of fresh sanctions.

The move coincides with Western efforts for Iran to commit to a
UN-drafted proposal for it to ship its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad
in return for nuclear fuel from France and Russia for a Tehran medical
research reactor.

Although Tehran has said that it is ready “in principle” to sign on to
the proposal, it insists that not all its LEU be shipped out in one go
as world powers are demanding.

China appears to be the strongest holdout to sanctions among the five
veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday the United States expects to
gain China’s support for imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear
program.

“We have the support of everyone from Russia to Europe. And I believe
we’ll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran
to isolate them, to make clear that in fact they cannot move forward,”
Biden said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

Clinton will also hold talks on Iran with Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who is in the Qatari capital, her spokesman Philip
Crowley said.

“We obviously need to have Turkey’s support as we move forward and
contemplate particular actions on the pressure track,” Crowley said.

On Sunday, Erdogan said his country was willing to serve as the venue
for an exchange of Iranian nuclear fuel in any settlement between Tehran
and the West.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Turkey could serve as
the center for the exchange of uranium … but there is no agreement up
until now,” he said at a press conference in the Qatari capital Doha.
“If Turkey is chosen, it will do what it is asked to do,” Erdogan added.
He said Ankara has been trying for several months to help resolve the
crisis over Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country has good ties
with the Islamic Republic and has repeatedly offered to serve as
mediator, is expected to visit Iran in the coming days to push for a
diplomatic solution.

Israel’s premier, meanwhile, said Sunday he would press for “crippling
sanctions” against Iran when he visits Moscow this week.

“Israel believes that severe pressure should be imposed on Iran – and
first and foremost very harsh sanctions, what the US secretary of state
called ‘crippling sanctions,’” Netanyahu told his Cabinet ahead of his
departure for Moscow expected later Sunday.

A Russian company is building Iran’s first nuclear power plant, and
Moscow traditionally has resisted new sanctions against Iran.

Israel considers Iran its greatest threat.

While Israel has said it hopes diplomacy will resolve the nuclear
standoff, it has not ruled out military action. In 1981, Israeli
warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. – Agencies

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