The European Union and Canada adopted new sanctions Monday against Iran that target its foreign trade, banking and energy sectors. The countries worry Iran's nuclear program could be used for weapons. Iran denies it, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes such as energy generation.
“China does not agree with the EU's unilateral sanctions against Iran,” China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said. China made a similar objection when the United States recently imposed its own sanctions.
Senior US officials said Thursday that they would travel soon to China, Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates to demand compliance with a new, fourth round of UN Security Council measures against Iran.
Tehran has tried to deflect further sanctions by offering to talk about the nuclear issue.
This week, Tehran's senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, told reporters that “Iran is ready to go back to the negotiating table” quickly to discuss exchanging some of its enriched uranium for fuel rods for Tehran's nuclear reactor.
No details of Iran's offer were available. But under a similar deal in May with Brazil and Turkey, Iran agreed to ship about 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, where it would be stored. In exchange, Iran would get fuel rods made from 20 percent enriched uranium.
That level of enrichment is high enough for use in research reactors but too low for nuclear weapons.
In her statement Friday, Jiang said China welcomes Iran's latest offer to talk about a possible fuel swap. “This is conducive to promoting the process of resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations,” she said.
A senior Iranian official said Friday that Tehran will never give up its right to enrich uranium, but it could suspend higher-level work for several years if a long-delayed fuel swap can be agreed with foreign powers. Iran's position on the process may be central to reviving stalled talks with global powers.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday that Iran would stop enriching uranium to 20 percent purity if the fuel swap is agreed.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said it was out of the question for Iran to promise never to enrich uranium, but added that the higher-grade work could be put on hold.
Iran has thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium to the 3.5 percent level it says it needs for generating power. It began refining small amounts to the 20 percent level in February, alarming Western powers because this takes the material closer to the grade needed for a nuclear weapon.
"Twenty-percent enrichment is our right and we would never cede this right. But despite that right, since its need is not felt (in the event of a fuel swap), there is no necessity for doing that," Salehi told the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The UN Security Council has demanded that Iran cease all uranium enrichment.
