China on board for Iran sanctions

China will join efforts to sanction Iran.

Obama administration officials announced the breakthrough Monday during a summit in Washington on containing the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to the White House said a new set of U.N. Security Council sanctions would be ready within “a matter of weeks.”

The announcements came after Presidents Obama and Hu Jintao met in a summit.

China, one of five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, was the final holdout.

It’s not clear how strong sanctions approved by China would be; China remains one of Iran’s major trading partners, particularly in the energy sector.

U.S. officials have spoken of expanding the the existing Security Council list of individuals and entities subject to international financial and travel sanctions, and of targeting Iran’s banks.

The Obama administration has asked Congress to delay passage of punishing unilateral sanctions until it exhausted efforts to expand international sanctions. The Congressional sanctions target third parties that deal with Iran, raising objections from some of the countries that otherwise are ready to cooperate on international sanctions targeting only Iranian entities.