The "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" agreement was signed on March 27 by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Tehran. But US President Joe Biden has expressed concern about this agreement between Beijing and Tehran. In the meantime, what will be Biden's approach to the deal? (Photo quoted from Yahoo's image)
This agreement will increase bilateral economic and political relations between the two countries by increasing cooperation in various fields of petrochemicals, mining, advanced technology, transportation, agriculture, etc. This partnership encourages more cooperation and is important for both parties.
On the one hand, Washington knows that Iran's strategic partnership with China will improve Iran's regional position. In fact, the deal with China will help Iran circumvent US sanctions and increase its influence in the Middle East. Also, the agreement with Beijing may reduce Tehran's nuclear concessions and the new government may not accept it softly after the presidential election in Iran.
In addition, Iran could play the Chinese card and deal a significant blow to returning to the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran also hopes the pact with China will reduce the strength of US sanctions. Under these circumstances, Iran's strategic partnership with China will make the Biden government's efforts to reach an agreement much more difficult. Therefore, Biden does not know exactly how to fulfill his election promise to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal. Another dimension of the China-Iran agreement is the weakening of the United States in the region. The United States has been trying to get out of the Middle East for years. But China's growing influence in the Middle East turns it to the only foreign power with strong ties to all actors in the region. In fact, Beijing's deep alignment with Iran is worrying for Washington in the Middle East. In addition, Washington is forced to work with its partners to limit Beijing's relations with US partners. Therefore, part of the Biden government's effort will be challenging China's influence in the Middle East.
In fact, Donald Trump, given his approach to China and Iran, had a tremendous impact on the indirect encouragement of Iran and China in strategic cooperation. However, Biden is now worried about further involvement between Iran and China. Biden must either accept the new China-Iran agreement or, by using some approaches, reduce its wide effects against US interests. In the meantime, the main focus of the United States will be on controlling China in order to eliminate the Chinese threat against the US and its allies. To compete with China in the Middle East, Biden must either provide the means for normalizing relations with Iran, giving Iran broader concessions on a variety of issues to avoid further convergence with China or to prevent traditional US partners from seeing China as a more attractive alternative for cooperation and enhancing relations.
Furthermore, this strategic partnership between Iran and China will improve Iran's regional position and China's position in the Middle East. If Washington does not want Iran to have a unique place in China's strategy in the Middle East, it must reduce the scope of Sino-Iranian relations and slow down the process of further convergence between Iran and China through various interactions with China.
Farzad Ramezani Bonesh
Senior Researcher and Analyst of International Affairs
