Zhai Jun, China’s special envoy on Middle East affairs, said on Friday that the United States must abandon its policy of unilateral sanctions and pressure on Iran.

“China believes that the United States should abandon these methods, abandon unilateral sanctions and extreme pressure on Iran because this is the only way to return to the original correct way to solve the problem”, Al-Manar quoted him as saying at a briefing.

He stressed that the current tense situation in the Middle East was associated with unilateral sanctions and pressure exerted by the United States, as well as with Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Tehran.

“Iran has recently announced some new measures while stressing that they are reversible and are under surveillance. However, the Chinese side still hopes that the interested sides will take measures leading to the mitigation of tension, and not vice versa,” he noted.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) started injecting uranium gas into advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear enrichment facility on Wednesday.

Enriching gas into centrifuges at Fordow was the latest step by Iran in retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump’s abandonment of the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the imposition of the harshest ever sanctions on Iran.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the AEOI chief, and a nuclear physicist said on Tuesday that “we have previously enriched uranium to 5% and 20% at the Fordow site. Now we possess enough 20% enriched uranium, but we have the capability to produce it in accordance with the JCPOA if our reserves end.” 

NA/PA