China called on all relevant parties to create conditions for resolving the Iran nuclear issue, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. China hopes Iran can continue to maintain tangible talks with the P5+1 group (the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany), as well as strengthen cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, for a "comprehensive, secular and appropriate" settlement of its nuclear issue, spokesman Hong Lei said during the routine press briefing. Hong's remarks came after Iran inaugurated two major projects related to its nuclear

A prominent South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday that his country should consider developing nuclear weapons or bringing back the US arsenal as a way to pressure North Korea and its ally China. Chung Mong-Joon, a billionaire businessman who belongs to the ruling conservative New Frontier Party, said on a visit to Washington that the latest crisis with North Korea showed that diplomacy had failed with Pyongyang.

With North Korea issuing apocalyptic threats of nuclear war in recent weeks, Western powers have been reminded of what could happen if they fail to find a solution to Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, experts say. World powers “are now even more anxious not to have with Iran a situation like the one we have with North Korea,” Oliver Thraenert, head of the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, told AFP. On Friday, Iran and the so-called P5+1 - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia) plus Germany - met in

With North Korea issuing apocalyptic threats of nuclear war in recent weeks, Western powers have been reminded of what could happen if they fail to find a solution to Iran's disputed nuclear programme, experts say. World powers "are now even more anxious not to have with Iran a situation like the one we have with North Korea," Oliver Thraenert, head of the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, told AFP.