There is rampant speculation that the visits by Steven Chu, the United States energy secretary, to Saudi Arabia on Monday and a high-ranking Israeli delegation to Beijing later this week both will focus on persuading China to support United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear energy program.

Even if this is the focus of the two diplomatic missions, the result will be disappointing to those who want to coerce China into shifting its position on the Iran nuclear issue.

According to Monday's Financial Times, the US is hoping that by pushing Saudi Arabia to sell more crude oil to China, it will help China to be less dependent on oil from Iran and more willing to support sanctioning Iran.