Al-Manar
09/03/2010 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Riyadh on Tuesday that further sanctions on Tehran over its uranium enrichment program would bear no fruit, as Western nations continue to push for new sanctions against Tehran. "I don't believe that any further sanctions will yield results," Erdogan told journalists, adding that earlier rounds of sanctions "have never yielded results."
Turkey, which has good relations with its neighbor Iran, has offered to host an exchange of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) with 20 percent enriched uranium to be supplied by world powers to Tehran as part of a UN-drafted deal.
Moreover, China insisted diplomacy was the way to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear program. "We have said all along that the Iranian nuclear issue has to be peacefully resolved by diplomatic means through dialogue and negotiations," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. "At present there is still space for diplomatic efforts, dialogue and consultation."
The comments came ahead of a visit by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, due in China on Sunday for a four-day trip during which the issue of Iran's nuclear program was likely to come up.
The spokesman said Miliband would meet Chinese leaders to "exchange ideas on China-UK relations and other major international and regional issues of common interest".
China, one of five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council and a close ally of Iran, has so far refused to agree to tougher sanctions against the Islamic republic, despite increasing pressure from Washington.
Tehran and world powers are locked in a stalemate over the deal which envisages shipping out Iran's LEU to France and Russia for further conversion into higher-grade uranium.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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