TEHRAN — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on
Wednesday praised cooperation with the country’s largest trading partner China,
saying Tehran wanted to “expand its long-term strategic relations” at a meeting
with Beijing’s defense minister.
اضافة اعلان
Raisi stressed that “regional and global
developments show more than ever the value of Iran-China strategic
cooperation”.
Iran has been engaged for a year in negotiations
with France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China directly, and thae US
indirectly, to revive a troubled 2015 nuclear deal.
The accord gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange
for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a
nuclear weapon, something it has always denied wanting to do.
But talks in Vienna to restore the deal have been
paused since March 11.
Among the key remaining sticking points is Iran’s
demand that Washington delist its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US
terror list.
“Countering unilateralism and creating stability and
order is only possible through the cooperation of like-minded independent
powers,” Raisi said at the meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
Wei also met with his Iranian counterpart,
Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani, who stressed “the need to counter American hegemony in
the world by strengthening multilateralism”, an Iranian defense ministry
statement read.
Raisi said Iran’s “priority” was the “successful
implementation of the 25-year comprehensive cooperation plan” it signed with
China in March 2021.
The deal includes “political, strategic and economic
clauses”, according to Tehran.
Trade with China dropped after Washington reimposed
biting economic sanctions on Iran in 2018, when then-president Donald Trump
unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal.
But exports to China have surged by 58 percent in
the past 12 months, while imports from China grew by 29 percent, according to
Iranian media.
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