UNITED NATIONS, March 10: China and Russia on Friday took a strong position against the Western nations’ proposal to impose additional sanctions against Iran as the talks between five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany entered the fourth day.

The proposals include an arms embargo, trade restrictions, a travel ban and an extension of an existing list of firms and individuals whose assets would be frozen.

China fears that financial sanctions would not specifically target the country’s nuclear sector but would punish the Iranian people.

“China’s main difficulty is with the financial and the trade sanctions against Iran because we feel that we should not punish the Iranian people,” Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said on Friday after Security Council talks.

Mr Wang said that Russia was unhappy with the specific naming of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on the list of those whose assets would be frozen.

“They feel it is an institution in Iran and you don’t penalise an institution,” Mr Wang said.

Russian Ambassador Vitali Churkin said there had been “a lot of attention and discussion to make sure the Iranian people are not punished”.

“We went through the whole list of elements. There are some on which we are quite close, there are some on which there is some serious concerns and differences,” Churkin said.

He declined to elaborate on the areas of disagreement.

Iran has refused to freeze its enrichment-related activities despite the Security Council’s decision on Dec 23 to impose sanctions.