Iran-China secret agreement raises controversy

Eslam Mohamed

The leaked provisions of a comprehensive agreement between Tehran and Beijing have provoked negative reactions around the world, and even within Iran itself. Despite both parties trying to hide these provisions, the leak has put the Iranian regime in a major political predicament, as its opponents have accused it of selling the country’s wealth to foreigners in exchange for protecting the regime.

Although the agreement has not yet been officially published, opposition leaders and former senior officials in Iran have announced their rejection of what they consider to be high treason.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday, July 25 that his country is determined to continue friendly and balanced relations with all powers in East and South Asia and Eurasia.

Mousavi tweeted that the potential long-term cooperation agreements with China and Russia and the continuation of cooperation with India in the Iranian city of Chabahar indicate the continuation of friendly and balanced relations with these countries. “We are determined to continue this policy,” he added.

This comes in conjunction with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s announcement of modernizing the Iranian-Russian cooperation agreement for 20 years within the framework of developing the growing economic relations between Tehran and the international anti-Washington axis that seeks to establish an active eastern bloc.

The leaked agreement with China states that Iran’s leaders called on Beijing to invest in all industrial, economic, agricultural, security, military, commercial and financial sectors in exchange for purchasing crude oil.

The draft agreement is said to have been deliberately leaked by the Iranians in order to bargain with Washington and improve their negotiating position in any future negotiating entitlement.

The agreement between the Chinese and Iranian governments includes a comprehensive economic and security partnership with investments worth $400 billion, mostly in Iranian oil infrastructure, as well as military industries. In return, China will obtain cheap and guaranteed oil without interruption for a quarter century. This would provide a means for saving the Iranian oil industry, which has been wracked by US sanctions since 2018, reducing its oil exports and forcing Iran to smuggle oil across its borders.

China imports 10 million barrels a day, and Tehran will be able to save most of that amount and gradually raise its production ceiling to more than 8 million barrels a day.

If this agreement begins to be implemented, it is likely to upset the geopolitical balances in the region by introducing China as a direct party in the region’s security accounts and the great challenge this will represent.