Beijing Does Not Blindly Support US Anti-Iran Sanctions

Beijing, Jan 18, IRNA – Beijing does not support US sanctions against Iran “blindly”, a Chinese news source announced Wednesday. “China has no reason to blindly give such support,” reported the China.org.cn while referring to the value of trade exchanges between Tehran and Beijing that increased by more than 40 billion dollars in 2011. The report added that Iran and China have witnessed 29.6 billion dollars worth of trade cooperation in 2010. “…the United States is seeking China's support for more stringent sanctions against Iran, principally in the form of ceasing its purchases of Iranian oil … but China will surely not stop buying oil from Iran.” “All economic and trade relations between China and Iran are legal according to international norms,” the report noted. The China.org also said the intensive sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran will not only lead to growing tensions in the Persian Gulf region but also would demolish the world economy. “Of the 116 international economic sanctions imposed between 1941 and1990, 77 were led by the United States. A further 80 sanctions were imposed from the end of the cold war to 2007. “The US got involved in more than 60 of those sanctions, which affected more than half of the world's population,” China.org further reported. Since Iran is a major oil source for China, the US sanctions have endangered Beijing’s national interests, it noted. The US economic sanctions have never had favorable outcomes, said the source, stressing that those restrictions have only brought catastrophe as such happened in Iraq after cold war. The sanctions against Iraq presented misery to the Iraqis, it said, adding that the only thing the sanctions have caused is “humanitarian suffering.”/end