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Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, left, speaks with Director of the Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger in Munich. Yang used his visit to issue a broadside against U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and to resist U.S. pressure to get tough on Iran.
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China has overtaken the European Union to become Iran’s largest trading partner, according to a new analysis of the commercial ties between the two countries.
The growing business links between Beijing and Tehran underline China’s reluctance to agree to any further economic sanctions on Iran as western countries escalate their campaign to contain the country’s nuclear ambitions.
The announcement by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, that Iran will start enriching uranium to 20 per cent purity – a step closer to the 90 per cent required to build nuclear weapons – has given renewed impetus to western calls for the United Nations Security Council to impose more sanctions.
The Iranian atomic energy authority announced on Monday that further enrichment would begin on Tuesday.
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