Obama 'ratchets up pressure' on nuclear Iran
Updated on 02 April 2010
US President Barack Obama vows to "ratchet up the pressure" on Iran's controversial nuclear programme while urging China to support the growing international push for sanctions.
President Obama said that he planned to "keep turning up the pressure" on Iran nuclear activities but recognised that international backing was essential.
"The idea is to keep turning up the pressure," Obama told CBS news earlier this week.
"We're going to ratchet up the pressure and examine how [Iran] responds but we're going to do so with a unified international community."
The US president urged his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to help increase pressure on Iran so an agreement could be made over its nuclear programme.
Obama and Hu discussed the growing international push to curb Iran's nuclear plans during a telephone conversation. Official reports said that Hu did not commit openly to new sanctions.
The discussion followed China's agreement earlier this week to enter into serious talks about UN-backed measures against Tehran.
"President Obama underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations," the White House said in a statement after the hour-long telephone call.
Iran's top nuclear envoy, in Beijing for talks, sounded defiant but gave no sign China had budged on its decision to consider backing a new United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at his country.
Western powers say Tehran wants the means to make nuclear weapons, but China - which buys large amounts of oil from Iran - has for months opposed calls to back sanctions. Hu is to attend a nuclear security summit in Washington this month.
"I think Iran now has no hope of making China keep with its stance of a few months ago in which it strongly opposed placing further sanctions", said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
"China has already changed this stance."
Russia signs nuclear deal
Obama's talks with China came ahead of a landmark nuclear arms pact between the US and Russia. The former Cold War foes are to sign a pact on Thursday committing to unprecedented nuclear arms reductions.
Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign the deal in Prague, the capital of a former Soviet satellite now in Nato.
Both presidents say new cuts in the largest arsenals on the planet are a step toward a world without nuclear weapons and a signal to nations seeking them that there is no need.
The successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty will not come into force without ratification by lawmakers in both countries.
