Beijing, March 25: China took part in a conference call with five other world powers on Wednesday to discuss a U.S. proposal for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, but no deal emerged.
Beijing, which had refused for months to engage in serious discussions on sanctions, joined the call among senior foreign ministry officials from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany, several U.N. diplomats said.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed the call but declined to provide details. “It was part of ongoing consultations on our two-track policy, for which all sides expressed support,” he said.
That approach refers to a combination of dialogue and incentives from the six powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — if Tehran complies with Security Council demands that it halt its nuclear enrichment program and the threat of sanctions if it does not.
Western nations say Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability. The Iranian government denies the accusation, saying its ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
As expected, the six nations did not agree on a draft sanctions resolution on Wednesday, though envoys said the main topic of conversation was a U.S.-drafted sanctions proposal.
Hours after the call took place, the White House said President Barack Obama spoke about Iran and other issues on Wednesday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters that senior foreign ministry officials from the six powers would hold another call on Iran next week. He added that Beijing appeared to be ready for serious discussions on new sanctions against Iran.
“My understanding is that they have agreed to engage substantively,” Lyall Grant told reporters in New York.
He added China’s former deputy U.N. ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, who recently returned to Beijing, was on the call and was the new lead Chinese negotiator on the Iran issue. Western envoys said Liu was a sensible choice, since he helped negotiate some of the earlier Iran sanctions resolutions.
ENIGMATIC CHINA
But the difficulties with China, whose stance on Iran has puzzled the four Western powers, may not be over.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany had hoped the Chinese would agree to a face-to-face meeting soon to hammer out the details of a U.N. sanctions resolution to submit to the 15-nation Security Council for a vote.
“China was only ready to commit to another conference call,” a diplomat said, adding that it was positive that Beijing was finally willing to discuss the possibility of sanctions, something it had refused to do since a Jan. 16 meeting of officials from the six powers in New York.
China’s new ambassador to the United Nations, Li Baodong, was asked by reporters about the call. Avoiding specifics, he said China was “firmly committed to the nuclear non-proliferation regime” and “an advocate of diplomacy.”
A U.S.-drafted U.N. sanctions proposal includes a possible ban on new Iranian banks abroad and foreign banks in Iran, as well as an arms embargo with international inspections similar to one in place against North Korea, Western diplomats said.
It would also urge vigilance against Iran’s central bank, ban insurance and reinsurance of shipments to and from Iran and would blacklist some Iranian shipping companies and individuals and firms linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Russia has indicated it has problems with the arms embargo and other elements in the U.S. draft, but could support less stringent measures, the envoys said. It is not clear how China reacted to the draft, which it received several weeks ago.
Security Council diplomats have said it was unlikely the council could adopt an Iran sanctions resolution before June.
They added that Russia and China, which reluctantly backed three previous sanctions resolutions, would do their best to dilute any proposed punitive steps while negotiating a text.
A senior Russian diplomat said that Russia and China have pressed Iran to accept a United Nations offer to replace fuel for an atomic reactor that would require Tehran to ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for further enrichment and processing into fuel assemblies.
Western diplomats told Reuters that Russia and China quietly admonished Iran’s government earlier this month, saying they wanted it to accept the U.N.-brokered offer and change its nuclear policy. They added that neither received a satisfactory reply.
Convincing China to vote for any new sanctions resolution in the Security Council, and not to abstain, will not be easy, diplomats say. There is also the possibility that it would just barely get the required nine “yes” votes needed for adoption.
—-Agencies