Iran's Leader Supports Expansion of Strategic Relations with China

The leader of the Islamic Republic has expressed support for expanding relations between Iran and China, emphasizing a "unified and integrated China" and stating that Iran "will never forget China's cooperation during sanctions." According to IRIB News Agency, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated on Saturday, January 23, during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, that the Islamic Republic is keen on expanding relations with "independent and reliable countries like China" and stressed that the agreement between the two presidents for a 25-year strategic relationship must "definitely reach the operational stage." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced during a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday that the two countries have discussed "drafting a comprehensive 25-year document and also enhancing the level of bilateral relations to $600 billion over the next 10 years." Rouhani had previously stated on January 16 regarding the visit of his Chinese counterpart to Iran that "we do not forget friends during hard times and sanctions," emphasizing that China could play a greater role as "Iran's primary trading partner in the post-JCPOA era in investment, technology, and trade." According to statistics from China's customs administration, this country has been Iran's primary economic partner in recent years. "A unified China is a principled and definitive policy of the Islamic Republic," Khamenei declared in another part of his speech. According to this report, the Chinese President also cited Iran's support for a "unified and integrated China" and his country's support for "Iran's nuclear issue" as examples of "mutual trust and independent policies of the two countries." This comes amid criticism of the Islamic Republic's silence regarding the situation of the Muslim minority in China in recent years. In the past few years, especially after 2009, the Xinjiang region in China has witnessed protests and armed clashes between opponents and Chinese security forces, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The residents of Xinjiang, particularly in its southern centers, are mainly Muslim Uighurs, among whom some separatist groups are also present. Protesters against the 2009 presidential election voiced slogans like "Death to China" in response to the suppression of Uighur Muslim protests by the Chinese government. The leader of the Islamic Republic also referred to the Chinese President's remarks about expanding security cooperation between the two countries, stating that the region has become insecure due to "the wrong policies of the West and also a distorted and incorrect interpretation of Islam." He identified some regional countries as the "main source of this distorted thought" without naming them and added, "The West has also attacked and pressured Muslims in Europe and America instead of confronting the main source of this thought and terrorist groups." Khamenei emphasized that "the West has never been able to gain the trust of the Iranian nation," and the U.S. policy towards the Islamic Republic is "worse and more hostile" among Western countries. Xi Jinping's visit to Iran comes after about 14 years since the visit of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Tehran. The Chinese President began his five-day trip to the Middle East on Tuesday, having visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt before Iran. This visit occurs amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Riyadh over the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia cleric, and the subsequent attack on the Saudi embassy in Iran, leading to the severing of relations between the two countries. In this context, China has sent a diplomatic delegation to Tehran and Riyadh, headed by Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming, calling for a reduction of tensions between the two countries to maintain stability in the region. China is also one of the countries in the P5+1 group that reached a nuclear agreement with Iran six months ago in Vienna after lengthy negotiations.