Iran mulls downgrading ties with Britain; China says sanctions will ‘exacerbate’ situation

Iranian lawmakers voted Wednesday to consider downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain in retaliation for newly imposed sanctions, state media reported.

The parliament introduced an emergency bill to go to a vote on Sunday on the issue, said the website of IRIB television.

Several lawmakers cried “Death to Britain” as the measure was adopted with 162 votes. Five deputies voted against.

The wording of the bill was not immediately divulged.

But the head of the parliamentary committee on foreign policy and national security, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said he was asking the foreign ministry “to expel the British ambassador from the country,” said the parliamentary website.

The United States, Britain and Canada said in coordinated announcements Monday they were slapping additional sanctions on Iran targeting its financial and energy sectors,
citing evidence that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Iran, however, has consistently denied it is seeking nuclear weapons, insisting its atomic program is to produce electricity for civilian purposes.

Britain, home to the world’s biggest financial market in the City of London, said Monday it was “ceasing all contact” between its financial system and that of Iran.

The United States declared Iran’s entire financial system, including its central bank, of “primary money-laundering concern” −a label invoking legislation that is meant to dissuade non-U.S. banks and businesses dealing with Iran under threat of U.S. reprisals.

Canada said it was halting “virtually all transactions” with the Islamic republic.

Britain and Canada have embassies in Tehran. The United States does not, having closed it after Islamic students took its diplomats hostage in 1979 following Iran’s revolution.

Iran hit back on Tuesday and said the new sanctions on its petrochemical sector will not prevent it from selling to European markets but would instead push up global market prices and generate more export revenues.

“(Sanctions) will certainly lead to an increase in the price of petrochemical products in the global markets and it might unwillingly be a significant contribution to our foreign exchange revenues because Iran will never lose its target markets,” Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat said to Fars news agency

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi slammed the West as “arrogant.”

“Those who produce Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) issue resolution against Iran and claim that Iran is after such weapons,” Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said.

“That is while the same arrogant countries equipped and supplied arms to (the toppled Iraqi dictator) Saddam and the Zionist regime of Israel and have acknowledged that they possess almost 5,000 nuclear warheads which are enough for destroying the earth several times.”

The minister also denied new claims about a likely link between Iran and chemical weapons’ shells recently found in Libya, and noted, “Those who equipped Saddam to bomb Halabja with chemical weapons now accuse Iran of possessing chemical weapons.”

China against sanctions

Meanwhile, China said Wednesday new sanctions unveiled by Western states against Iran over its nuclear program would not resolve the issue but would instead “exacerbate” the situation.

“We believe pressuring and sanctions cannot fundamentally solve the Iranian nuclear issue. On the contrary, they will complicate and exacerbate the issue and intensify confrontation,” said foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin.

China is a key ally of Iran. They have become major economic partners in recent years, thanks partly to the withdrawal of Western companies in line with sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Iran’s other ally Russia ̶ which, along with China, blocked any possibility of the new sanctions being put to the U.N. Security Council for wider adoption ̶ has called the Western measures “unacceptable and against international law.”

“China is always against unilateral sanctions against Iran and is even more opposed to the expansion of such sanctions,” he added.