Craptastic, as Allah would say. Germany’s already said it wouldn’t support further sanctions against the Islamic regime, and now Iran says China is supporting it.

BEIJING (AP) – Iran’s interior minister said China renewed its support Friday for negotiations over his country’s disputed nuclear activities, and he warned that new U.N. sanctions could force Tehran to adopt “other means.”

Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said he had reached a consensus on the issue in meetings in Beijing with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and senior foreign policy adviser Tang Jiaxuan.

“The two sides agreed that other methods such as sanctions are inappropriate and ineffective,” Pour Mohammadi told reporters at the Iranian Embassy.

China officially gives the look of actually caring about stopping it, but yet refuses to actually force Iran to – even peacefully.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted Yang as saying China supported a negotiated settlement and opposed the spread of nuclear weapons.

“China would like to continue its efforts to push forward the peaceful resolution of Iran’s nuclear issue,” Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.

China, one of five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, has urged Iran to cooperate with U.N. inspectors but has thwarted attempts by fellow permanent Security Council members—the U.S., Britain and France—to impose harsh U.N. sanctions on Iran.

And this lovely sentiment:

“If dialogue doesn’t work, then we will employ other means,” Pour Mohammadi said.

“Unfriendly relations with the IAEA is not something we wish to see happen,” he said.

No worries, mate. The IAEA’s not actually going to stop you. They’d have to actually care about stopping your program. They don’t. While news has recently come out that Iran just finished installing another 3,000 centrifuges, the IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei,  is busy condemning the US for being concerned about it.