China playing long game over Iranian nuclear worries

• Source: Global Times
• [00:32 January 15 2010]
• Comments

In January of 2009, for instance, Iran and China struck a $1.76 billion deal to develop an oil field in northeastern Iran and, in March of 2009, both nations signed o¦ on a $3.39 billion agreement to produce liquified natural gas.

To this end, it is also clear that China also needs to capitalize on the potential for Iranian hydrocarbons to enter China from across Asia – rather than through sea passages open to US navy interception.

This wouldn't be the first time China has clashed diplomatically with US over Iran. In the 1980s, China openly supplied the Iranians with weapons during their war with Iraq at the same time as the Americans were backing Saddam.

This time around, Beijing has offered Washington just enough ground to maneuver without a full major break in relations, while discreetly cushioning Tehran against US-led international pressure.

They employed a clever tactic to do so. Since 2006, China has reluctantly endorsed three UN Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, while keeping the nuclear issue in the Security Council. But as a permanent member, Beijing also has important influence, and can thus invalidate claims to international legitimacy over any military action, especially a unilateral one.

Whether or not Iran is actually seeking to develop a nuclear weapon remains anyone's guess. Experts say this process could take anywhere from 18 months to three years. China's best move, particularly as the leader of the SCO, would be to encourage and facilitate the acceptance of Iran's membership into the pact quickly before a new round of sanctions are imposed.

Doing so would not only add strength to China's ability to access Iran's energy sources, it would also very seriously dampen any unilateral moves, whether sanctions or missiles aimed at Iran and its nuclear facilities. Israel's hard-line government might support a military intervention, under no small influence by Washington.

But most importantly, through this inclusion, and following China's lead, the SCO could offer Washington's lawmakers, lobbyists and beltway pundits a unique model with which to pursue a new kind of potential rapprochement with Iran: one of their own. On February 21, 1972, a man named Richard Milhous Nixon stepped o¦ a plane at an airport in Beijing. And the rest is history.

The author is a Beijingbased freelance writer. globaltimesopinion@yahoo.com