BEIJING: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator warned the West to stop "threatening" Tehran as US President Barack Obama urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to cooperate in blocking Iran’s atomic ambitions.
The harsh words from Saeed Jalili came as Western calls mount for tough new punitive action against Iran over its suspect nuclear program — action that hinges on the approval of China, which wields a UN Security Council veto.
Beijing has until now refused to back Western calls for new sanctions, and earlier in the day again urged all parties to hold more talks and "show flexibility" in resolving the international standoff over Iran’s atomic drive.
In a phone call with Hu, Obama called for better Sino-US cooperation to ensure "that Iran lives up to its international obligations," the White House said.
Jalili suggested, however, that Beijing was heeding Tehran’s calls for help.
"Many issues came up in our talks on which China accepted Iran’s position," Jalili told reporters after talks with Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and State Councillor Dai Bingguo.
"We jointly emphasised during our talks that these sanctions tools have lost their effectiveness," Jalili said, though he said reporters "must ask China their position".
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The envoy said the West should change their "erroneous methods" and stop "threatening" Iran, warning that talks with six world powers including China and the United States could collapse if the West does not back off.
"If they continue with simultaneous talks and pressure, these negotiations cannot succeed," Jalili said.
"China as a large country can play an important role in changing these wrong methods."
The five permanent UN Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany have been involved in talks with Iran for months to try to end the standoff.
Beijing has a close diplomatic and trade relationship with Iran, dominated by its imports of Iranian energy resources — a point emphasised by Jalili, who said: "We believe China and Iran’s friendly relations will continue."
The day before, ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters China would continue to push for a peaceful settlement of the issue through "diplomatic means".
Russia has also been reluctant to agree new sanctions but has taken a harder line on Iran in recent weeks.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran is secretly trying to develop the atomic bomb, but Tehran says its nuclear drive is purely for civilian energy purposes, and that it has the right to nuclear technology.
When asked, Jalili indicated Iran had no new proposals it planned to bring to the negotiating table, saying Tehran’s position was already clear.
US President Barack Obama said Friday the United States will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program but would do so with unified international backing.
Obama made the remarks in a television interview only hours after urging China’s President Hu Jintao to join forces in ensuring that Iran lives up to its international obligations.
"I have said before that we don’t take any options off the table, and we’re going to continue to ratchet up the pressure and examine how they respond," he said of Iran in the interview with CBS news.
"But we’re going to do so with a unified international community — that puts us in a much stronger position."
Obama warned of "huge destabilizing effects in the region" if Iran acquires the capacity to make nuclear weapons.
"All the evidence indicates that the Iranians are trying to develop the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. They might decide that, once they have that capacity that they’d hold off right at the edge — in order not to incur — more sanctions," he said.
"But, if they’ve got nuclear weapons-building capacity — and they are flouting international resolutions, that creates huge destabilizing effects in the region and will trigger an arms race in the Middle East that is bad for US national security but is also bad for the entire world."
Obama said he had reached out to Iran after assuming office last year to give it the option of rejoining the international community but it had only isolated itself further.
"The idea here is just to keep on turning up the pressure," he said.
China has opposed new UN sanctions against Iran, but the White House said Obama "underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations."
He also welcomed Hu’s attendance at an international nuclear security summit in Washington this month as an "important opportunity for them to address their shared interest in stopping nuclear proliferation and protecting against nuclear terrorism."
Iran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful.
