China’s Ambassador Pang Sen told press conference in Tehran Tuesday that his country believes all the parties to the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement should stick to the deal “honestly”, recalling that the International Atomic Energy agency has confirmed that Iran is fulfilling all its obligations outlined in the agreement.
Last week and in a quarterly report, the IAEA confirmed that Iran has been honoring its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a nuclear agreement between Tehran and the six powers, namely Russia, China, the US, Britain, France plus Germany.
The IAEA is responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities as per the nuclear deal and should also help Iran develop its nuclear energy program.
The ambassador said, “Unfortunately, some multilateral sanctions have not yet been lifted. We have supported Iran’s call for all the sides to remain committed to the agreement and hope that the banking and finance-related sanctions soon be fully removed,” ISNA reported. Although Iran has upheld its part of the deal, there still remain some US sanctions, a matter that has been raised by Iran in meetings of a special committee designated for such disputes.
Pang said China has backed Iran’s stance in the meetings and has asked all sides to try to thoroughly implement the deal.
Asked about China’s stance on Iran’s application for the full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, he said, “Last year, some western news outlets spread a rumor that China was against Iran’s accession to the bloc”.
However, he stressed, China has always supported Iran’s bid for membership, a view that was brought up by China’s assistant foreign minister Li Huilai ahead of the SCO summit scheduled for June 8-9.
Pang said his country has always backed Iran’s accession to the bloc, adding that membership in SCO depends on the consensual support of all members. It is Iran which has to now win over other members’ yes vote to be able to come on board, he added.
China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the SCO in 2001.
