Iran nuclear envoy warns west to stop threats

Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Friday warned the West to stop "threatening" Tehran over its atomic program and said China agreed with the Islamic republic that sanctions were no longer useful.

"Many issues came up in talks on which China accepted Iran's position," the Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, told reporters after talks with Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and State Councillor Dai Bingguo.

"We jointly emphasized during our talks that these sanctions tools have lost their effectiveness," Jalili said, though he said reporters "must ask China their position".

According to U.S. official reports on Friday, President Barack Obama urged his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to work together on pressing Iran over its nuclear activities, but Hu did not openly commit to new sanctions on Tehran.

Obama and Hu discussed the growing international push to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions in an hour-long telephone call that followed China's agreement on Wednesday to enter into serious negotiations over possible new U.N.-backed sanctions against Tehran.

Obama also said Friday in an interview with CBS television's "Early Show," that increasing Iran's isolation would have an effect on its economy.

"I have said before that we don't take any options off the table, and we're going to continue to ratchet up the pressure and examine how they respond," he said.

Western powers say Tehran wants the means to make nuclear weapons, but China, which buys large amounts of oil from Iran, has for months fended off calls to back sanctions.

Together with China's announcement on Thursday that President Hu will attend a nuclear security summit in Washington this month, the in-depth talk between the two leaders also augured lower tensions between Washington and Beijing after a rash of disputes.

"President Obama underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations," the White House said in a statement after the telephone call, which took place later on Thursday Washington time, which is Friday morning in Beijing.

We jointly emphasized during our talks that these sanctions tools have lost their effectiveness

Saeed Jalili

Plenty of room for haggling

The Chinese president's reported comments, and remarks from his foreign minister, showed that while Beijing may be ready to consider new sanctions against Iran, it is not prepared to publicly commit to supporting such sanctions, leaving room for haggling in the U.N. Security Council.

China is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, each wielding the power to veto any resolution and thus block proposed U.N. sanctions.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called for "flexibility" during talks with Iran's top nuclear envoy Saeed Jalili, who flew to Beijing on Thursday.

Yang's brief published remarks from his meeting with Jalili did not mention backing sanctions, but they also did not repeat China's long-standing line that sanctions are not the "fundamental" cure to the dispute.

Yang "urged all sides to enhance diplomatic efforts and demonstrate flexibility, and to create the conditions for resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn) on Friday.