Op-Ed Contributors

Dealing with Iran's nuke issue

By Hua Liming (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-14 07:52

The EU has also benefited from Teheran's decision in December 2006 to gradually replace the dollar with the euro in its central bank deposits and use the euro as the main settlement currency for its oil trade.

A new round of sanctions on Iran will inflict enormous economic losses on not only Iran, but also on the EU, Russia and China.

As the pivotal member of the five-plus-one mechanism, the US should take into account the damage the new sanctions on Iran will possibly cause to other parties.

The US has been trying to exert pressure on China to stand behind it in its run-up to fresh sanctions against Teheran, saying all the five members had agreed to sanctions.

Britain, France and Germany have at most made a political gesture of support to their ally and it is expected the three European countries will conduct heated debates about its fineprint if such sanctions have to be renewed.

Russia has never yielded its heavy interest in Iran, and what it has done is possibly use Iran's nuclear issue as a political chip to force the US into some concessions on Washington's deployment of the long-controversial missile defense shield in Europe.

As a responsible power that has long advocated the settlement of international disputes through diplomatic means, China should be well prepared to combat the risks of a possible sanction to protect its own interests.

It is the common responsibility of all countries to stop nuclear proliferation. The international community has reasons to demand Iran remove the veil on its nuclear program to prevent weaponization of Teheran's nuclear technology.

However, the majority of countries remain reluctant to either become a foe of Iran or join the US' isolation of the nation.

The core of Iran's nuclear issue is the decades-long antagonism between it and the US. The US Bush administration labeled Iran as a part of the "axis of evil" during its eight-year reign and pushed for the adoption of three rounds of UN sanctions against the country, which pushed US-Iran ties to the brink of war.

Since it took office, the US Obama administration has made efforts toward undoing its past unilateralism and improving ties with the Islamic country, including the policy of "unconditional engagement" with Teheran. However, the Obama administration cannot completely break away from the US' long-held strategy as a superpower and cannot accept peaceful coexistence with the Iranian regime.

As a permanent UN Security Council member, China holds an important say in Iran's nuclear issue. It enjoys good relations both with the US and Iran and thus does not want to offend either party.

The US regards China's backing as a measure of Beijing's obligation as a responsible country while Iran sees China's resistance to UN sanctions as the test of long-praised good relations between the two countries.

China should, together with other members of the international community, come up with a viable formula to achieve a US-Iran compromise on the issue.

The author was China's ambassador to Iran from 1991 to 1995.

(China Daily 05/14/2010 page8)

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