- (AFP) - Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has said
in Tehran that Beijing opposes US efforts to refer Iran to the United Nations
Security Council over its nuclear programme.
-
- "It would only make the issue more complicated and
difficult to work out," Li said on Saturday during a news conference
with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi.
-
- "As far as I know, the Iranian government is having
a very positive attitude in its cooperation with the IAEA," Li asserted,
adding that he had told his colleagues "that China supports a solution
in framework of the IAEA".
-
- Li refused to speculate on whether China would use its
veto in the Security Council in the event of Iran's case being sent there.
-
- The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to
develop nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic energy programme,
and wants the UN nuclear watchdog to take Iran before the UN Security Council.
-
- Tehran denies that charge.
-
- Russia, another permanent and veto-wielding Security
Council member, has also voiced its strong opposition to Iran's dossier
being referred there by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
-
- 'Change of behaviour'
-
- Meanwhile, Kharazi gave on Saturday Iran's first formal
reaction to George Bush's re-election, urging the US president to undergo
a "change of behaviour" in his second term.
-
- "This is an internal matter for the United States
and the American people," Kharazi replied when asked to respond to
Bush's re-election.
-
- "But what is important to us is a change of behaviour.
In that respect, we hope for positive developments in the second part of
Mr Bush's presidency," he said during a news conference with visiting
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
-
- In 2002, Bush famously lumped Iran into an "axis
of evil" along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea.
|
