BEIJING, January 17 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Yefimov) - China believes that the Iranian nuclear dispute should be resolved through diplomacy, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday, declining to say whether Beijing would support taking the matter to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions against Tehran.
China "continues to believe that peaceful talks and the diplomatic route are the best choice in the interests of all sides, to solve the Iranian nuclear problem," spokesman Kong Quan said. "We hope that all sides will make the maximum effort to renew talks." China intended to contribute to solving the nuclear problem with Iran, he said.
Iran's nuclear plans have become the subject of increasing concern among other nations, particularly since it announced last week that it would restart a nuclear program, abandoning a two-year moratorium on nuclear research.
Some countries, notably the United States and Israel, have expressed fears that Tehran could use the research to build nuclear weapons.
Iran has consistently said that it wants to acquire the technology only for peaceful purposes, but calls have mounted for the UN to impose sanctions against the country for abandoning its nuclear research moratorium.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday released a statement inviting the European Union to resume negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
Also Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said sanctions against Iran were not the best way of resolving the dispute around the country's nuclear programs, pointing to their failure in the case of Iraq.
Lavrov also said that Russia supports Iran's intention to resume talks with the European trio of France, Germany and Britain, but only with Tehran observing the nuclear research moratorium.
