Iran and China have vowed to boost ties that Beijing believes will help preserve regional
and international peace, official Iranian media reported.
The two countries' pledge to cooperate more closely is
likely to irritate Western powers seeking tougher sanctions on
oil-producing Iran over its disputed atomic ambitions.
Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held talks
with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has
repeatedly refused to heed U.N. demands to halt nuclear
activities which Washington suspects are aimed at making bombs.
China, which can veto further U.N. sanctions, gets about 12
percent of its oil imports from Iran and wants more.
"Enemies of the two nations must know that high-ranking
Iranian and Chinese officials are determined to expand their
bilateral ties," Ahmadinejad told Yang, Iran's official IRNA
news agency said.
It quoted Yang as saying: "Expansion of ties with Iran has
great importance for China's government ... Improving Iran's
and China's relations could be helpful in protecting regional
and international peace, stability and security."
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry said sanctions were not
the way to resolve the international confrontation over Iran's
nuclear work while also urging Tehran to be more flexible.
Yang described Iran's cooperation with the U.N.
International Atomic Energy Agency as positive, IRNA said.
He and Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili
emphasised in talks the necessity of resolving the nuclear issue
through diplomacy and peacefully, the ISNA news agency said.
In Vienna, diplomats said the U.N. nuclear watchdog is
likely to report this week that Iran has improved cooperation
with an inquiry into shadowy atomic activity but that it
remained unclear whether it was enough to resolve key questions.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to
develop atomic weapons but Tehran says its nuclear programme is
aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more oil.
Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and
China are expected to meet on Nov. 19 to assess the report from
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei as well as one from the European
Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana.
Iran is defying two U.N. Security Council resolutions since
December which imposed mild sanctions.
Iranian analyst Saeed Laylaz said China's trade with Iran
was set to soar to around $20 billion this year from just $200
million in the mid-1990s, partly due to U.S. sanctions which
have prompted Iranians to turn from the West to Asia for trade.
"Never in the history of Iran have we had such an experience
with another country," he said. Iran is selling oil to China
while the communist country supplied vehicles and engineering
goods to the Islamic state, he said.