China Says Wants Peaceful Solution To Iran Nuclear Issue

BEIJING : Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday that Beijing would continue to push for a peaceful solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme, ahead of crucial talks on the issue later this month.

“China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear issue,” Wen told Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

The Iranian official met Wen a day after attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Beijing, a regional security grouping dominated by Russia and China that pledged solidarity in the face of the global financial crisis.

China is a close ally of Iran, and has repeatedly opposed calls for sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Tehran says the programme is for peaceful nuclear energy, but the West fears it masks a drive to make a nuclear bomb.

Negotiations over the issue have been strained but Iran has recently tried to make a show of greater cooperation since taking part in talks in Geneva with major world powers including China at the beginning of the month.

Iran and the six other nations — Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and the United States — are to meet at the end of October for a second round of talks aimed at allaying Western concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

New Talk Open On Nuclear Issue: NKorea

SEOUL: North Korea said Monday that it is open to new dialogue to defuse tensions over its nuclear weapons program in what appeared to be a call for direct talks with the United States.

The statement from Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry marks a rare expression of willingness to talk by a regime that has rapidly escalated tensions with a flurry of provocations in recent months, including a nuclear test and a series of missile launches.

It also suggests that the regime thinks it has raised its stakes enough, and it’s time to negotiate.

On Monday, North Korea made clear again that it won’t return to six-nation nuclear talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

“It became all the more clear that other parties are taking advantage of these six-party talks to seek their ulterior aims to disarm and incapacitate the (North) so that it can only subsist on the bread crumbs thrown away by them,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

But it added, “There is a specific and reserved form of dialogue that can address the current situation.”

The statement did not elaborate on the new form of dialogue. But Pyongyang has long been known to be seeking direct negotiations with Washington.

Unlike previous ones, Monday’s statement lacked any threats. That could suggest Pyongyang is looking for a negotiated solution.