News

Iran and China agreed during talks in Beijing that sanctions "have lost their effectiveness," chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Friday after meeting senior Chinese officials.

"In our talks with China it was agreed that tools such as sanctions have lost their effectiveness," Jalili told a news conference, speaking via a Chinese translator.

Asked if China backs sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, he said: "It's up to China to answer that."

The United States said this week that six world powers, including China and Russia, are united in talks on a possible new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Beijing has not commented directly on whether it is contemplating supporting further restrictions on Iran, but diplomats have dropped a phrase they were using earlier this year -- that sanctions did not offer a "fundamental solution."

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called for "flexibility" during talks with Jalili, who flew into Beijing on Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Beijing, like Moscow, reluctantly backed three previous rounds of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for refusing to halt enrichment as demanded by five U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Iran rejects Western charges its atomic program is aimed at developing bombs and says enrichment is a sovereign right.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is ... >>>