By Liu Shuiming
Foreign ministers of China, United States, Russia, France,
Britain and Germany gathered Monday evening in New York to exchange
views on the Iranian nuclear issue. The six-party conference was
convened after the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council failed to reach agreement on the draft resolution proposed
on May 3 by Britain and France. What a kind of result would the FM
consultation produce? All interested parties are watching
closely.
The meeting reportedly lasted two hours, rather than the
scheduled 45 minutes, but made no progress on a unified position.
According to US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, foreign
ministers of the six major powers mainly focused on "questions at
strategic plane" and didn't touch much the draft resolution now
under Security Council discussion. The spokesman perhaps intended
to play down the great differences among the six countries on the
Britain-France proposal, but his words may run
counterproductive.
The Iranian nuclear issue displayed recently no sign of getting
eased, but a trend of escalating into a crisis. On March 29, the
Security Council passed a presidential statement calling on Iran to
stop uranium enrichment activities. But Iran answered by declaring
the production of a small amount of enriched uranium and conducting
a sizeable military drill near the Straits of Hormuz, the "energy
lifeline" of the West. While refusing direct talks with Iran,
Washington is busily seeking for UN adoption of sanction against
Iran, declaring that plans of military strike "have been put on the
table".
The Britain-France proposal, believing that the Iranian nuclear
program endangers world peace and security, requires the Security
Council to take further measures under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter
if Iran refuses to cooperate. The draft didn't elaborate on the
"further measures", but according to Chapter 7, when world peace is
threatened or aggression occurs, mandatory measures, including
military means, can be taken. Therefore this serves no less than an
ultimatum to Iran: force will be used once diplomatic efforts
fail.
This draft resolution of intimidation met strong opposition from
members of the Security Council. Russia, for example, has been
insisting on "major revision" on it, opposing the language of
international sanctions or even the use of force under UN
Charter.
China consistently stands for safeguarding the international
anti-proliferation regime and maintaining peace and stability in
the Middle East region. China is convinced that related resolutions
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the
presidential statement of the UN Security Council should be
earnestly implemented, and hopes that Iran can fully cooperate with
IAEA so as to clarify some unsettled questions. Under current
circumstances, the Chinese side hopes, the international community
can stick to diplomatic negotiations to solve the issue peacefully,
and all parities involved should remain calm and exercise restraint
to create necessary conditions and atmosphere so that talks can be
resumed.
It is quite obvious that China and Russia share a common ground
in opposing sanctions or the use of force against Iran.
The key of the nuclear issue lies in whether Iran and the
US--the opposing two sides--can make concessions. By now, both
parties remain stiff-necked despite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to
George W. Bush. The clash between Iran and the US, on the surface,
is that Iran insists on its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy
and denies any plan to develop nuclear weapons, while the US
accuses Iran of seeking for nuke weaponry and doesn't allow it
possession of nuclear technology. But the root lies in conflicts
between different values and strategic interests, which is also the
reason behind ceaseless disputes since the two countries severed
ties 26 years ago.
At the moment, the basic point of US policy is to topple the
Iranian regime via sanction or force. Therefore it is quite
possible that the US goes alone or with Britain and France, if Iran
still refuses to yield, although the Security Council can hardly
pass sanction in short term due to Chinese and Russian
opposition.
(People's Daily Online May 11, 2006)
