BERLIN, March 30: China believes there is enough turmoil in the Middle East and does not want to create any more, Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo said on Thursday after a meeting in Berlin on Iran.

“The Chinese side feels there has already been enough turmoil in the Middle East and we do not want to see more turmoil introduced into the region,” he said, following talks between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on Iran’s nuclear programmeme.

Russia and China have opposed any hint of punitive action against Iran.

Russia urged Iran on Thursday to heed ‘in the fullest way’ possible a UN Security Council call for Tehran to end uranium enrichment activities within 30 days.

“We urge the Iranian leadership to obey the common view of UN Security Council members in the fullest way and guarantee full cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Among them is an end to all work linked to uranium enrichment,” the ministry said.

However Moscow, which is building Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr, supports its aspirations to develop nuclear energy, said the statement.

“We would like.... the normal realisation of Iran’s nuclear energy programmeme to become possible in the foreseeable future,” the ministry continued. Iran’s nuclear activity ‘has not developed with full transparency’, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

“Many questions on Tehran’s cooperation with the IAEA have been resolved, but a whole series of others have still not been cleared up,” the ministry added.

The UN talks had been marred by differences between the United States and its Western allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other over how to coax Tehran away from sensitive nuclear research.—AFP