China, Russia back Iran as Trump presses Tehran for nuclear talks

China and Russia stood by Iran on Friday after the United States demanded nuclear talks with Tehran, with senior Chinese and Russian diplomats saying dialogue should only resume based on "mutual respect" and all sanctions ought to be lifted.

In a joint statement issued after talks with Iran in Beijing, China and Russia also said they welcomed Iran's reiteration that its nuclear programme was exclusively for peaceful purposes, and that Tehran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be "fully" respected.

In 2015, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions in a deal with the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. But in 2018, Donald Trump, a year into his first term as U.S. president, pulled out of the pact.

"(China, Russia and Iran) emphasised that the relevant parties should be committed to addressing the root cause of the current situation and abandoning sanction, pressure or threat of force," China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told reporters after the meeting.

China, Russia and Iran also emphasised the necessity of terminating all "unlawful" unilateral sanctions, Ma said.

Ma's meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi came days after Tehran spurned U.S. "orders" to resume dialogue over the nuclear programme.

Last week, Trump said he had sent a letter to Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks, adding that "there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded that he would not negotiate with the U.S. while being "threatened", and Iran would not bow to U.S. "orders" to talk.

Iran was further enraged after six of the United Nations Security Council's 15 members - the U.S., France, Greece, Panama, South Korea and Britain - held a closed-door meeting this week to discuss its nuclear programme. Tehran said the meeting was a "misuse" of the U.N. Security Council.

That meeting was also criticised by China, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying on Friday that the "hasty" intervention by the Council was not helpful in building trust.

Despite Tehran's defiant rhetoric, engaging with the U.S. to hammer out a nuclear deal may be the more pragmatic option, with crippling sanctions weighing on the Iranian economy and stoking public unrest, according to Iranian officials.

NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Iran has long denied that it is working on developing a nuclear weapon. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said last month that Iran was "dramatically" accelerating enrichment of uranium to near the roughly 90% weapons-grade level.

In February, Trump restored his "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"The Iranian nuclear programme is peaceful in nature," said Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi on Friday.

"It is under the surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran is receiving huge inspections from the IAEA, and our nuclear programme has never been diverted to non-peaceful purposes."

The main root cause of the current situation is the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 pact, Gharibabadi said.

China hopes all parties will meet each other halfway and resume dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible, Wang told the Iranian and Russian ministers separately after the trilateral meeting.

The United States should show "sincerity" and return to talks with Iran as soon as possible, said Wang.