Clinton praises China on Iran issue

BEIJING, May 26 (UPI) -- The United States is pleased with China's cooperation in the U.N. Security Council on the Iranian nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Beijing at the end of the two-day China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues, Clinton responded to a question on the resolution on Iran by the five Security Council members plus Germany, or P-5+1.

China had agreed to participate in the talks while maintaining its stand on resolving the issue through diplomacy. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes but Western allies say it is designed to make nuclear weapons and are urging tougher U.N. sanctions against Tehran.

"With respect to Iran, we are pleased with the cooperation that we've received. We have a P-5+1 consensus, as you know, on the text of a resolution," Clinton said in remarks posted on the U.S. State Department Web site. "We've had productive discussions on completing the annexes and proceeding to the Security Council with the resolution and annexes. And we discussed at some length the shortcomings of the recent proposal ... by Iran ... to the (International Atomic Energy Agency.)"

Clinton said the proposal does not answer the concerns of the international community.

"There is no recognition of the deep concern people have because of the 20 percent enrichment (regarded as being close to weapons-grade level) that Iran is pursuing. There is a recognition on the part of the international community that the agreement that was reached in Tehran a week ago between Iran and Brazil and Turkey only occurred because the Security Council was on the brink of publicly releasing the text of the resolution that we have been negotiating for many weeks."

Clinton said the policy of the administration of President Barack Obama remains a dual-track approach of engaging with Iran and holding in abeyance international pressure.