China agreed to invest $ 400 billion in Iran over 25 years in exchange for a steady supply of oil to fuel its growing economy under a broad economic and security agreement signed on Saturday.
The deal could deepen China’s influence in the Middle East and undermine American efforts to keep Iran isolated. But it was not immediately clear how much of the deal could be implemented while the U.S. dispute with Iran over its nuclear program remains unsolved.
President Biden offered to resume negotiations with Iran over the 2015 nuclear deal that his predecessor, President Trump, revoked three years after it was signed. American officials say that both countries can take synchronized measures to make Iran comply with the terms of the agreement while the United States gradually suspends sanctions.
Iran refused to do so, and China supported it, demanding that the United States act first to reactivate the agreement it broke, suspending the unilateral sanctions that stifled the Iranian economy. China was one of the five world powers that, together with the United States, signed the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.
Foreign ministers from both countries, Javad Zarif and Wang Yi, signed the agreement during a ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran on Saturday, according to the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars. This crowned a two-day visit by Wang that reflected China’s growing ambition to play a more important role in a region that has been a strategic concern for the United States for decades.
“For the region to emerge from chaos and enjoy stability, it must free itself from the shadows of the geopolitical rivalry of the great powers, remain immune to pressure and external interference and explore development paths suited to its regional realities,” a spokeswoman for the Ministry. of Foreign Affairs of China, Hua Chunying, said on Friday. “You must build a security architecture that accommodates the legitimate concerns of all parties.”
Iran did not disclose the details of the agreement before the signing. But experts said he had not undergone any changes from an 18-page draft obtained last year by The New York Times.
This draft detailed $ 400 billion of Chinese investments to be made in dozens of fields, including banks, telecommunications, ports, railways, health and information technology, over the next 25 years. In return, China would receive a regular supply – and, according to an Iranian official and a heavily discounted oil trader – of Iranian oil.
The draft also called for the deepening of military cooperation, including joint training and exercises, joint research and development of weapons, and intelligence sharing.
Iranian officials praised the agreement with Beijing – first proposed by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, during a 2016 visit – as a step forward. But he was met with criticism within Iran that the government could be giving too much to China.
Hesamoddin Ashena, one of President Hassan Rouhani’s top advisers, called the deal “an example of successful diplomacy” on Twitter, saying it was a sign of Iran’s power to “participate in coalitions, not remain isolated”. He called it “an important decree for long-term cooperation after lengthy negotiations and joint work.”
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, called the document a “complete map” of relations for the next quarter century.
Wang has already visited the archrival of Iran, Saudi Arabia, in addition to Turkey, and is expected to go to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman in the next few days. He said the region was at a crossroads and offered to help China to resolve persistent disputes, including over the Iranian nuclear program.
China is even ready to receive direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians, suggesting that American domination in the region has undermined peace and development.
In Iran, opinions on expanding China’s influence are mixed.
After Mr. Xi first proposed the strategic agreement during his visit in 2016, negotiations to complete it were slow at first. Iran has just struck a deal with the United States and other nations to ease economic sanctions in exchange for severe restrictions on its nuclear research activities, and European companies have started to migrate to Iran with investments and joint partnership offers to develop gas and oil fields.
Those opportunities evaporated after Trump pulled the United States out of the deal and imposed new sanctions that Europeans feared could involve them, forcing Iran to look east.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered the revival of negotiations with China, naming a trusted conservative politician and former President of Parliament, Ali Larijani, as special envoy.
Critics complained that the negotiations lacked transparency and considered the deal a sale of Iran’s resources, comparing it to unilateral deals that China has made with countries like Sri Lanka.
Supporters of the deal said Iran needed to be pragmatic and recognize China’s growing economic prominence.
“For a long time in our strategic alliances, we put all our eggs in the basket in the West, and that has not worked,” said Ali Shariati, an economic analyst who until recently was a member of the Iran Chamber of Commerce. “Now, if we move politics and looking to the East, it won’t be too bad. ”
It remains to be seen how many of the ambitious projects detailed in the agreement will materialize. If the nuclear deal fails entirely, Chinese companies could also face secondary sanctions from Washington, an issue that has infuriated China in the past.
The American lawsuit against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei includes accusations that the company was stealthily negotiating with Iran, violating these sanctions.
Hua, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, emphasized that the two countries need to take steps to resolve the nuclear dispute.
“The urgent task is for the United States to take substantive steps to suspend its unilateral sanctions on Iran and long-arm jurisdiction over third parties,” she said, “and for Iran to resume reciprocal compliance with its nuclear commitments in an effort to achieve a harvest. precocious. “