China: Iran's New Best Friend !!!

Following this week's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report concluding that Tehran appears to be well on its way to developing the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear weapon, the next step for world powers is to seek tougher sanctions in the United Nations Security Council.

But meaningful restrictive measures are not likely to happen, say many analysts, considering China's close relationship with Iran, in part to satisfy China's great thirst for oil. Today, Chinese and Russian diplomats announced that they believe no new sanctions on Iran are necessary.

“The Chinese-Iranian relationship has, in fact, been deepening over the last few years,” notes Michael Singh, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council during the Bush administration. The Chinese government not only dilutes the sanctions in the United Nations Security Council by sort of providing Iran with diplomatic cover, but it doesn't enforce the sanctions it even does agree to in the Security Council."

China is Iran's largest trading partner, and this year alone business between the two is estimated at $40 billion, enough of an incentive, say analysts, to block any meaningful Security Council action. Some in Congress are calling on the Obama administration to try and do more.

"What China's doing, as I understand, it is avoiding the kind of economic squeeze we want to put on Iran that could force it not to go forward on nuclear weapons and that's a disgrace and we ought to be much tougher with China than we've been," New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer told Fox News.

The influential and powerful senior senator blasted the Chinese, saying they "keep putting themselves first, they keep ignoring the danger to the world of their actions. They even ignore the danger to themselves in the long run, as long as they get a quick benefit in the short run. I think we need to be much tougher with China up and down the line. They are not a positive force in the world scene, whether it comes to Iran, trade, intellectual property or human rights.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/11/10/china-irans-new-best-friend/#ixzz1dOlxaka1