Iran owns China, Russia UN votes – US senator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russia and China have too much
riding on commercial relations with Iran to help the West in
curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a U.S. senator said on
Tuesday, calling for tough measures with Moscow and Beijing.

“The two countries that are sending the wrong signals today
are Russia and China,” said Kansas Republican Sam Brownback.

“Part of the problem is Iran … has effectively bought
U.N. Security Council vetoes from China and, very likely,
Russia,” Brownback, a potential presidential contender in 2008,
said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Experts at a symposium at the conservative think tank said
Moscow is a major arms supplier to Iran, while Beijing has
struck energy deals worth as much as $100 billion with Tehran.

Both of those large powers have also embraced Iran as part
of a strategic policy of blunting U.S. influence in the Middle
East and Central Asia, the experts said.

“I don’t think China and Russia are going to make serious
efforts to stop Iran or North Korea,” said Stephen Blank, a
China expert at the U.S. Army War College.

Brownback said that to pressure countries that support
Iran, Washington should initiate a campaign of sanctions
modeled on a 1980s campaign targeting companies that helped the
Soviet Union build a pipeline to Western Europe.

“Like the former Soviet Union, both Russia and China need
international technological and managerial support to keep
their activities going,” said Brownback.

“No international company is going to treat lightly
exclusion from the U.S. market in exchange for contracts with
the Iranian government,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iran resumed feeding uranium gas into
centrifuges for nuclear-fuel enrichment after a break of 2-1/2
years and announced it was deferring until next week talks on a
Russian proposal to defuse the nuclear standoff.

The West suspects Tehran of trying to develop atomic bombs
under cover of a civilian program and persuaded the
International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board last week
to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible
action, which could include sanctions.

Iran says its nuclear work is designed solely to generate
electricity for its economy.