Agence France-Presse,
Washington (AFP): China should freeze investments in Iran and vigorously enforce UN sanctions against the Islamic republic for pursuing sensitive nuclear work, an ex-senior US official who crafted US policy on China said Wednesday.
Robert Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state, said while the Russians had now “found cause to stop work” on Iran's key Bushehr nuclear power station, Beijing should cooperate with Washington, the European Union, Moscow and others to dissuade Tehran from its course of uranium conversion and enrichment.
“China could help through vigorous enforcement of sanctions on dual use technology and by urging full cooperation” with demands by the UN Security Council, he told a Washington forum.
Zoellick said China's inclination might be to try to avoid dealing with the “danger” posed by Iran because unlike North Korea, it might seem far away.
In addition, he said, Iran was a large supplier of oil to China with potential for Chinese investment.
“Yet, China should consider the systemic risks of Iran's posture,” he warned.
“If Iran develops nuclear weapons, the whole Persian Gulf region will be endangered,” he said.
Zoellick said that China could play an “influential role” by encouraging Iranian leaders to “choose a path of integration, not confrontation leading to isolation.”
Beijing could let the Iranians know “quietly” that Iran will not gain new foreign investments if it continued to defy UN action, he said.
Zoellick said China also might believe that its internal security measures had limited its risk as a target of nuclear armed terrorists.
“But consider what will happen to the international economic system — from which China benefits enormously — if terrorists strike anywhere with weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
“The flow of goods, capital, services, ideas, people and information across borders — upon which the globalized system depends — would come to a screeching halt.”
Zoellick in a landmark speech in 2005 proposed that China consider itself — and be treated by other countries — as a “responsible stakeholder” in international system.
Officials from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany were to meet this week to discuss their next moves on Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment program.
Iran is under UN sanctions due to nuclear activities that have fuelled fears that it is seeking to build atomic weapons.
