WASHINGTON (AP) – Six major world powers have agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its opposition, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
China, long a holdout against fresh international penalties against Iran, signaled its willingness Wednesday to consider a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution, the officials said.
Speaking at the United Nations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the officials had "accurately described" the position of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. She did not elaborate but said the group, known as the "P5-plus-one," was unified.
China's change of position improves prospects for passing a resolution aimed at pressuring Iran to scale back its nuclear ambitions, which Tehran insists are limited to developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Iran's state media said Wednesday that the country's top nuclear negotiator was heading to China to discuss possible U.N. sanctions.
Iranian state television reported that Saeed Jalili would travel to China on Thursday for talks with senior Chinese officials "concerning the nuclear program."
President Obama had said Tuesday that he hoped to have Iran sanctions in place within weeks – a timetable that appeared highly ambitious given China's previous reluctance to even discuss specific sanctions. China had insisted that negotiation with Iran needed to be pursued.
On Wednesday, however, two U.S. officials said that in a phone call among officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany, the Chinese representative said his country was prepared to discuss specific potential sanctions.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the diplomatic talks are continuing.
One of the officials said China had made a "commitment" to discuss the specifics of a Security Council resolution, and that on that basis the United States would press ahead with an effort to pass such a measure. The officials cautioned that this does not mean there is yet a full consensus on U.N. sanctions.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after meeting with Obama at the White House on Tuesday, said that Washington and Paris were "inseparable" in their thinking on the subject of Iran sanctions.
