TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, arrived in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan on Friday and is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s official website, Iran’s top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi will discuss bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced the trip on Thursday.
There is consensus between the two countries in important areas, including confrontation against the United States’ unilateralism and worldwide interventionism, the spokesman said.
On the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Iran and China are determined to further expand their strategic partnership, Khatibzadeh tweeted later on Thursday, adding, “In spite of US max pressure, China is Iran’s 1st economic partner.”
“Maximum pressure” is US President Donald Trump administration’s trademark policy towards Iran. Under the campaign, the US left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a multilateral, internationally-lauded, and historic nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, Press TV wrote.
The US administration then took another unilateral and illegal move by returning the sanctions that the JCPOA had lifted. Afterwards, it began threatening third countries against keeping up their trade with Iran as the nuclear deal has permitted.
Countries sustaining their business dealings with Iran, including by continuing to buy oil from the Islamic Republic, risk coming under Washington’s “secondary sanctions.”
A JCPOA member, China has never acknowledged the US’ anti-Iran intentions, protecting the Sino-Iranian trade in all its glory and maintaining its vital imports of Iranian crude oil.
The two sides are fast-tracking the implementation of the Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, a roadmap outlining the quality of their strategic ties that was announced jointly in 2016.
To America’s dismay, the deal is crafted to help the two sides ditch the US dollar in bilateral trade and bypass US sanctions.
- source : Iran Daily
