Alwaght- While the US President Donald Trump has mobilized every tool at his disposal to force Iran to the negotiating table with excessive conditions using the maximum pressure campaign, on the other side, Tehran is using the capacities of expansion of relations with Russia and China as two rivals of the US to neutralize the White House's aggressive approach.
In this relation, recently an important nuclear agreement was signed between China, Iran, and Russia which is considered a significant diplomatic maneuver by Iran's foreign policy apparatus against the Western political moves.
The agreement was signed during a meeting on Friday of deputy foreign ministers of the three countries in Beijing, where the three diplomats discussed the latest on the Iranian nuclear case and lifting the sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In the closing statement, the three countries condemned the anti-Iranian sanctions imposed by the West, adding that the sides should commit to focusing on root cause of the current situation and quit sanctions, pressure, and resorting to force and threats.
The three countries stressed the importance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, including the time limits contained therein, and called on relevant parties to refrain from any escalatory action in order to create a conducive atmosphere and conditions for diplomatic efforts.
China and Russia welcomed Iran’s reiteration that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and not for the production of nuclear weapons. They also supported Tehran's policy of continuing cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and stressed the need to fully respect Iran’s right, as a state party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In another part of the agreement, the three countries stressed the need for all countries to refrain from any action that would undermine the technical, impartial and objective work of the IAEA.
This meeting was held in a time when in recent months Washington and its European allies have once again raised their usual claims against Iran's nuclear program, alleging that Tehran has expanded its nuclear activities off the agency's watch.
The three countries of Britain, France and Germany have threatened that they are ready to activate the "snapback mechanism" and restore UN sanctions against Iran if necessary.
These accusations are being made while the IAEA has repeatedly acknowledged in its quarterly reports that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and confirmed that Tehran has fulfilled its obligations in the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Unlike the West, Russia and China have always supported Iran's peaceful nuclear program and underscored the peaceful nature of Iran's activities at the Beijing meeting in order to take away any excuses from Washington and Europe.
It is noteworthy that European Troika intended to bypass Russia and China with the new 3+1 negotiation formula and exclude them from the negotiating process, but this meeting showed that the two nuclear powers that are permanent members of the UN Security Council, will support the Islamic Republic's pushback against Western political pressure and will not allow a consensus to be built against Iran in the UNSC.
Diplomacy lesson to Trump
The trilateral meeting was held amid American threats against Tehran and as Trump has used a language of force to sign a new deal with Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials have repeatedly asserted that they will not bow to Washington's bullying and will not negotiate under pressure.
Trump recently delivered a letter to the Supreme Leader via the UAE, which, according to him, details all the options on the table, including diplomatic and even military ones, to confront Iran’s nuclear program. Therefore, in these circumstances, holding a trilateral meeting in Beijing carries clear messages for the White House.
By signing the recent agreement, China and Russia pointed out the right path of diplomacy to the West and, in fact, reminded Trump that diplomatic, political interactions, and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect are the only practical and valid options in this regard.
This is while Trump, since entering the White House, has pretended to negotiate with Iran, but in practice, by imposing new sanctions and threatening to attack nuclear facilities, he has shown that he does not believe in the diplomatic path and mostly dreams of Iran’s diplomatic surrender.
Also, the emphasis in the Beijing agreement on the need to respect international law and the sovereignty of countries indicates opposition to the aggressive and unilateral policies of the US and that the rights of the Iranian people must be guaranteed in any dialogue, otherwise all paths will end in a deadlock.
The explicit support of Russia and China for this position is also important, as these two countries can help reduce the impact of US sanctions by increasing economic and technical cooperation with Iran. China in particular, as Iran's largest trading partner, plays an important role in maintaining financial and trade flows, indicating that broadening the Western sanctions will not achieve anything.
The fact that many countries just unlike the past do not support the anti-Iranian sanctions demonstrates that the maximum pressure policy and the push to isolate Tehran have largely failed and continuation of this situation will not ensure demands of Washington.
In addition, holding Beijing meeting immediately after the joint naval exercises of Iran, Russia and China in the strategic region of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Sea of Oman to Malacca Strait, in turn reminded the strategic partnership of the three countries, according to which Russia and China view the military threat against Iran as a threat to international security and a threat to their stable and major interests in a transitioning global system. A system in which Trump's US, as a declining hegemony, seeks to block the rise of rivals through the doctrine of chaos in the strategic centers of geopolitical competition.
Therefore, holding of naval exercises and the Beijing meeting indicate the political and military alliance of these three important and effective countries in order to confront the hegemony and excesses of the US-led West. Also, in addition to the immediate influence of reducing the impact of Trump's threats, Beijing meeting paves the way for deeper and more strategic cooperation of the three partners in the nuclear field and beyond.
Impacts of Beijing meeting on Trump's threatening approach
Jaafar Ghanadbashi, an Iranian expert of West Asian affairs, told Alwaght about the impact of the trilateral alliance on the Trump's approach, saying that that in fact Beijing meeting carried an important message about Iran's nuclear case to the West, suggesting that not only Iran is not isolated, but also it stands along the world powers and holds major capacities in deterrence and influencing the global political equations. By supporting Iran, China and Russia have shown that a weak Iran is not in their interest at all and that they want a strong Iran, because weakening Iran will allow the Americans to dominate the situation in the region, especially energy resources, and therefore a strong Iran will not allow this.
Mr Ghanadbashi added that Moscow and Beijing are against Washington's unilateralism. That is why they obviously back Iran. In the Friday meeting, the three powers took common stances on many global issues, especially Iran's nuclear case. This convergence is in its highest level and indicates that they build deterrence against any American threats to nuclear facilities of Iran. The meeting carried a message that the West is far from being capable of sidelining Iran from the political equations and Iran has the backing of powers that stand with it in the face of the Western excesses. Actually, in Beijing meeting, a kind of synergy emerged among these countries, displaying the three powers' deterrence against the West.
