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To Stop Iran, Lean on China

(New York Times) Ilan I. Berman - As Iran nears the nuclear threshold, the best way to stop it may be by punishing the Chinese companies that supply Tehran and enable its nuclear progress. China's ties with Iran are broad - and getting broader. In 2009, Iran ranked as China's second largest oil provider. In exchange, China has aided and abetted Iran's quest for nuclear capacity. China has turned a blind eye to Iranian acquisitions of sensitive technology and materiel for its nuclear program from Chinese sources. A concerted Chinese crackdown on firms involved in nuclear commerce with Iran would effectively cripple Tehran's atomic program. If the Obama administration is serious about halting Iran's nuclear program, it must do so by sanctioning companies like the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which has been developing Iran's mammoth North Pars natural gas field since 2006, and PetroChina (which supervises the import of some three million tons of liquefied natural gas annually from Iran). Both are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and therefore subject to penalties under existing law. At the same time, greater targeted sanctions and asset freezes are needed to bring to heel Chinese individuals and entities that are currently complicit in Iran's nuclear advances. The last, best hope of peacefully derailing Iran's nuclear drive lies in convincing Beijing that "business as usual" with Tehran is simply no longer possible. The writer is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.
2011-11-10 00:00:00
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