Australia urges China to stop buying Iran oil

‘We would urge our friends in Beijing but elsewhere as well in Asia to reflect seriously on this’: Kevin Rudd (File photo)

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd urged China yesterday to stop buying oil from Iran and join the West in putting pressure on the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear programme.
Stressing that it was not for Australia to dictate to others, Rudd said importers of Iranian oil should be mindful of the international community’s efforts to pressure Iran, and that China “should reflect seriously on this.”
“For those countries who continue to import we would urge them to be mindful of the actions of others in the international community who are seeking to bring about the pressure necessary to get a change in the Iranian government position,” Rudd told journalists in Paris.
“We would urge our friends in Beijing but elsewhere as well in Asia to reflect seriously on this,” Rudd said after talks with French counterpart Alain Juppe.
Juppe confirmed that he hoped the European Union would agree fresh sanctions against Iran at a meeting in Brussels on Monday. “Sanctions must be toughened to make the Iranian regime evolve,” he said.
“I think that on Monday during the meeting of European Union foreign ministers we will be able to agree on a sanctions programme in the two domains,” Juppe said, referring to finance and oil.
The comments came after Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday defended China’s vast oil trade with Iran as legitimate while stressing the Beijing government’s opposition to Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran is the third largest provider of oil to China.
Never tried to shut Hormuz
Meanwhile, Irani Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday Iran has never in its history tried to close the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route at the centre of increasing international tension,
“Iran has never in its history tried to prevent, to put any obstacles in the way of this important maritime route,” he said in an interview with NTV television during a visit to Turkey.