Iranian, Chinese Presidents Call For Closer Strategic Ties

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation Friday in which they called for enhancing solidarity and cooperation in all spheres. 

During their hour-long phone call he two presidents underscored the importance of strategic relations between Tehran and Beijing but nothing truly new was reported in the readouts of the talk. The Chinese president had a call with US President Joe Biden the day before.

According to the Iranian readout of the call, Raisi reiterated that reviving the 2015 agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) depends on a "political decision" by Washington as it was the US that left the agreement and imposed sanctions on Tehran. There was no mention of the nuclear deal in the Chinese readout of the phone conversation. 

Somehow similar to Xi’s call with Biden, in which the “one China” policy was among the main topics, the issue of Taiwan also came up in his call with the Iranian president. 

"Support for the One China policy is a definite and principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Raisi said, criticizing the US interference in the internal affairs of countries. 

Raisi told Xi that Tehran is resolved to expand relations with Beijing in all fields regardless of international developments, especially in providing maritime security and transfer of energy.

The two also talked about the implementation of the 25-year strategic partnership agreement between Tehran and Beijing as well as regional and extra-regional arrangements such as the group of the world’s emerging economies, known as BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.