US faults China on shipments to Iran

Washington, July 13: China is doing too little to stop militarily significant supplies to Iran, despite having voted for UN sanctions aimed at keeping Tehran from developing nuclear arms, senior Bush administration officials said today.

''Some Chinese entities continue to supply items and technology useful in weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery, and advanced conventional weapons programs of concern, despite the UN Security Council resolutions,'' Don Mahley, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told the congressionally created US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Mahley stopped short of accusing Beijing of violating the companion resolutions adopted unanimously in December and March aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear arms or the means to deliver them.

''There have been transfers, which we have addressed with the Chinese, in which we believe that the transfers were not permitted by UN Security Council resolutions 1737 and 1747,'' Mahley said in response to questions from Commissioner Peter Brookes, a former Pentagon East Asia strategist.

China disagreed with the US view that the items at issue were banned, Mahley added.

He declined to discuss the questionable transfers in public but said they ''might well be involved with the Iranian missile program as well as the Iranian nuclear program.'' David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told the panel that China had taken a legalistic approach to the sanctions against Iran ''rather than acting in the spirit of these.'' ''We have repeatedly asked China to stop its transfers to Iran of conventional weapons and technologies,'' testified Sedney, the No. 2 person at the US Embassy in Beijing from 2004 until earlier this year.

He said China's response had been ''irresponsible.'' Sedney highlighted US concerns over deadly attacks on US-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan that Washington has blamed on Iranian-linked groups.

''Partners do not provide weapons to people who support those who kill our troops and those of our allies,'' he said.

More broadly, Sedney faulted Beijing for ''a general willingness to allow transfers of a wide variety of dual-use and conventional technologies'' to such states as Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Venezuela all subject to US disapproval over a range of issues.

Reuters>