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POLITICS-CHINA: Playing Honest Broker to Iran, Israel

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Jan 12 2007 (IPS) - Amid sensational reports that Israel might be prepared to use nuclear tactical strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, China has been cast in the uncustomary role of Middle East conflicts negotiator over the last two weeks, hosting leaders from both nations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to China this week, aimed at lobbying veto-wielding UN Security Council nations to back tougher sanctions against Iran, came after Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani visited Beijing last week.

In a courtesy nod to Chinese diplomacy, both politicians appraised their China trips as successful. Olmert’s visit to China was preceded by well-publicised reparations of the Jewish cemetery in the northeastern city of Harbin. Olmert’s grandparents found refuge in Harbin after fleeing persecution in Russia in the late 19th century, and his father grew up there before moving to Israel. China spent three million yuan (385,000 US dollars) on extensive restoration work.

Olmert said the outcome of his talks with Chinese leaders had been “beyond expectations”. “The fact that the Chinese are saying that they do not want Iran armed with nuclear bombs has great significance,” he told reporters in Beijing before departing on Thursday.

For his part, Iran’s Larijani, while in Beijing, sought to emphasise that Iran and China’s relationship, and their growing commercial ties in particular, would not be affected because of Beijing’s decision to ally itself with the United States and other Security Council members in condemning Tehran’s nuclear-research programme.

“Of course, we know who is really behind these sanctions, so we are not blaming anybody for this,” Larijiani said in a news conference last week. “Countries that have long-term strategic relations will not change them because of tactical issues, and this was a tactical issue,” he added.

Although it has been reluctant to support tougher sanctions in the past, China closed ranks with Western powers last month in a unanimous Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran that could be stepped up if Tehran ignores a 60-day deadline to suspend its uranium-enrichment program.

The UN resolution has been dismissed by the Iranian Foreign Ministry as “illegal” and the enrichment effort – a process with bomb-making potential – has continued uninterrupted, prompting speculations that Israel may consider a pre-emptive attack on Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent the Islamic country from going nuclear.

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

British media reported last week that Israeli military sources have disclosed the existence of contingency plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapon, should the UN sanctions fail.

According to the UK weekly ‘The Sunday Times’, the disclosure of the plans was made with the intention of putting pressure both on Tehran to halt enrichment, and on the US to take more pro-active stance. The new US defence secretary, Robert Gates, has described military action against Iran as an “absolute last resort”, leaving Israeli officials to believe they had been left standing on their own.

If Israeli forces attack nuclear sites in Iran, it will not be their first pre-emptive strike against a perceived nuclear threat. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak to prevent Saddam Hussein acquiring nuclear weapons.

Arriving in Beijing on the heels of Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert said he was “surprised and encouraged” by the position expressed by China on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

“China made it absolutely clear that it opposes Iran going nuclear, in the sense of obtaining nuclear bombs”, Olmert said.

Beijing’s preparedness to back tougher UN sanctions to halt Iran’s nuclear programme might have come as surprise to Israeli officials because of China’s economic stakes in Iran. Oil supplies from the Islamic country currently make up some 12 percent of China’s crude imports, with projections to rise as the Chinese economy continues to grow.

During Larijani’s visit to Beijing last week, Chinese leaders reminded him that their vote for the UN sanctions reflected Beijing’s concerns about safeguarding non-proliferation. Chinese President Hu Jintao was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as urging a “serious response” to the UN sanctions.

Yet while cautioning Iran to end its defiance of the UN, Beijing has made clear that it will continue to do business with Tehran as usual. Iran and China are in the process of finalising a 16-billion-US dollar gas agreement despite a US warning that the Chinese partner could become subject to sanctions.

Last month, Iran and China’s biggest offshore oil producer, CNNOC, announced the signing of a preliminary deal to develop Iran’s offshore North Pars gas filed located in Persian Gulf waters. Investment for the production of liquefied natural gas is expected to come from the Chinese side.

The deal has been criticised by the United States as running against the grain of its efforts to isolate Iran for its intransigency in pursuing a nuclear program. But Beijing has defended the deal.

“We think this kind of cooperation and relationship is legitimate,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday at a regular press conference in Beijing. “Normal cooperation should not be interfered with”.