![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2006\/05\/negroponte.jpg\" "\\"negroponte\\"")
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte sought Chinese backing Thursday for new U.N. sanctions against Iran, warning that Tehran’s alleged uranium enrichment and missile development programs remained a threat, the Associated Press reported. <\/p>\n
Negroponte said he would raise the issue in talks with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo at the fifth session of their semiannual U.S.-China Senior Dialogue, that will also to touch on Taiwan, Sudan, human rights and efforts to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, Negroponte said.<\/p>\n
China, which has extensive business links to Iran, has repeatedly opposed a new U.N. resolution, arguing that negotiation rather than economic pressure was the best way to engage Tehran. <\/p>\n
The Bush administration is pushing for fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program even as a new report questions their impact.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss a possible third U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution with her counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — known as the P5 plus one" — when they meet in Berlin next week, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.<\/p>\n
But on Wednesday the Government Accountability Office released a report questioning how effective U.S. unilateral sanctions against Iranian banks and select military and other senior officials are in bringing changes in Iran’s behavior<\/p>\n
"U.S. officials report that U.S. sanctions have slowed foreign investment in Iran’s petroleum sector, denied parties involved in Iran’s proliferation and terrorism activities access to the U.S. financial system, and provided a clear statement of U.S. concerns to the rest of the world," the report said. "However, other evidence raises questions about the extent of reported impacts."<\/p>\n
The report recommended closer and more regular scrutiny of data on Iran sanctions to assess their impact.<\/p>\n
McCormack acknowledged that it is hard to measure the impact of sanctions on Iran because of the difficulty of obtaining data, but added, "I think that there is a general assessment … that, yes, the sanctions have had some effect, but it takes a while for sanctions to have their full effect, and we are only doing this now in an incremental manner."<\/p>\n
Washington’s case for sanctions has been complicated by the most recent National Intelligence Estimate, which said Iran stopped efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program in 2003.<\/p>\n
McCormack said the United States will not abandon its campaign to obtain a third Security Council resolution and persuade international banks to stop doing business with Iran.<\/p>\n
"The whole strategy here is to use various kinds of diplomatic pressure at a gradually increasing rate to try to get a different set of decisions out of the Iranian leadership," he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte sought Chinese backing Thursday for new U.N. sanctions against Iran, warning that Tehran’s alleged uranium enrichment and missile development programs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-4652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nuclear","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n