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China says Iran's nuclear step 'not in line with' UNSC, IAEA+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NEW YORK, April 12_(Kyodo) _ Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said Wednesday Iran's announcement that it has manufactured low-enriched uranium "is not in line with" the recent statement by the president of the U.N. Security Council and a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency that called on Iran to halt such activities. Wang expressed his view when he spoke to reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York. It was China's first reaction to Iran's announcement on Tuesday night, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time and joined the club of nuclear countries. Wang, who expressed concerns over Iran with tougher expressions than before, also said China wants to help resolve the problem through diplomacy, emphasizing that mulling the use of force against Iran or imposing sanctions on the country "will not be helpful" in resolving the problem. Wang asked all parties, including Iran, not to make the existing situation worse. Also on Wednesday, French Ambassador to the United Nations Jean-Marc de La Sabliere expressed his concerns over Iran's move. France will decide which action to take, including possibly drafting a new U.N. resolution based on the U.N. Charter's chapter seven, depending on the contents of a report by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to be submitted to the Security Council expected at the end of the month, the ambassador said. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he hopes Iran "will be able to come back to the table and work with the international community to find a negotiated solution." "And indeed they (Iran) have maintained that their intent is the peaceful energy. And if that is indeed the case, they should be able to give the international community that assurance and work with everybody to find a solution out of this," Annan said in an interview with Reuters TV in The Hague. |