Arab News Blog

Saudi Arabia denied on Friday that its officials had discussed with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates putting pressure on China to back a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear ambitions. An “official source” quoted by the official SPA news agency said reports that Riyadh said it was willing to use its influence to get Beijing to support UN sanctions aimed at convincing Iran to halt its atomic programme were false.

“This issue is not true, it was not discussed during the visit of the secretary of defence who was in the kingdom recently,” the source was cited as saying….

Gates told reporters in Abu Dhabi that he felt the two Gulf countries are willing to use their economic leverage to persuade China to lift its opposition to sanctions. “I have the sense that there’s a willingness to do that,” he said in Abu Dhabi. The two oil-rich states were also open to lobbying Moscow on the issue, “although there’s less need with respect to Russia,” he said, as it was more supportive of sanctions. The focus was “mainly China,” he added…”