Israel Presses China over Iran sanctions

A group of senior Israeli officials met Chinese officials in Beijing at the weekend in a visit that underlines the complex balancing act China faces over how to deal with Iran.

The Israeli visit was part of a multi-pronged international effort to apply more pressure on the Chinese government as a push to implement tougher sanctions on Iran gathers pace at the United Nations.

Chinese companies signed a string of large energy deals in Iran last year, and China has been the most reluctant of the members of the UN Security Council to support new sanctions, calling instead for new talks.

China’s position on Iran is often described as a choice between its expanding energy interests in the country and its desire to maintain a solid relationship with the US, which has been the anchor of its foreign policy for several decades.

However, Beijing also has to weigh up a growing web of other interests in the Middle East which could have some influence on its approach to sanctions.

Indeed, parts of the foreign policy establishment in China are warning that it would be against the government’s interests in the Middle East to get too close to Iran.

China should not “undertake to please Iran and at the same time hurt the feelings of the Arabs and other countries,” said Yin Gang, a Chinese expert on the Middle East in a recent article.

Israel is part of that web of interests. Although China has taken a pro-Palestinian position in international forums and is critical of Israel’s nuclear capability,Beijing has over the years had an unusually close relationship with Israel, which has been a key military supplier.

“The relationship with Israel is an important one,” says Willem van Kemenade, a China analyst who has written a book on Iran’s relations with China.

In spite of embargoes in Europe and the US on selling military technology to China, “it has been able to get some things through the backdoor of Israel”, says Mr van Kemenade.

The Israeli delegation included Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s deputy prime minister, who has mooted the need to consider military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, and Stanley Fischer, head of the central bank, who diplomats said was well-versed on the fine print of potential sanctions. On Friday they met Dai Bingguo, China’s leading foreign policy official.

Both governments have said little about the nature of the talks. “Our mission in Beijing is just about information,” said Ehud Barak, the defence minister, in a speech in Washington on Friday.

Israeli officials would not say if they had mentioned taking unilateral military action against Iran. Israel has pushed for sanctions to include restrictions on oil exports and imports, which would directly affect China.

According to diplomats, Beijing has been quietly lobbied by Saudi Arabia, which has been its biggest supplier of oil for most of the past decade and which has warned of the dangers a nuclear Iran would pose to Middle East stability.

Chinese analysts admit that a nuclear arms race in the Middle East could pose a risk to its energy security.

Yet China has interests in Iran that go beyond energy investments.

Chinese scholars mention that China’s own nuclear weapons capability was achieved in the face of western sanctions. Chinese leaders share with Iran a suspicion of what they regard as western interference in their domestic politics.

Many Chinese observers consider the unrest in Iran to be partly inspired by US interests. China also sees Iran as a future partner in a Middle East in which the US is less dominant.

“China’s relations with Iran are about much more than just energy,” says Mr van Kemenade. “It is historical, civilisational and political.”

There is also the added question of China’s Muslim population. After the riots in Xinjiang last summer, China was criticised for its treatment of its Uighur minority by Turkey and by two Iranian ayatollahs.

Given how sensitive Beijing is about political radicalisation of Muslims in Xinjiang by people outside the country, “the incident was a warning to Beijing that it must exercise caution when dealing with Iran’s political and religious elites”, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group.

One Israeli official voiced optimism on Monday that China would not veto new UN Security Council sanctions to curb on Iran’s nuclear programme, saying that Beijing had listened attentively to the visiting Israeli delegation.

Beijing has given scant comment on the discussions.