Iran-China Cooperation Agreement: A Document of Development or Betrayal of National Interests?

Some consider the 25-year Iran-China cooperation document a betrayal of national interests. Some say it is a document for development and should be defended with “courage,” but hidden from the public. Why don’t the public have the right to know the details of this document?

“We must courageously defend the development of our country’s strategic relations with Beijing,” said Eshaq Jahangiri, first vice president of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, at a meeting of the “Foreign Economic Relations Coordination Headquarters” on Tuesday, July 8. He was referring to a draft document that covers various areas, from “economic planning, including oil and gas, electronics industries, knowledge-based areas, and …” and, according to some sources, on China’s astronomical investment in Iran’s oil and gas industries, equivalent to $280 billion. Despite this astronomical amount and the scope of the contract, official sources have not yet provided the public with the necessary information about the document.

Leaked information about the document has made it the subject of much speculation among supporters and opponents of the Islamic Republic inside and outside the country, and has also caused Islamic Republic officials to contradict themselves. Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a weekly press conference with the media on Tuesday, July 8: “There is nothing secret or confidential about the 25-year cooperation document with China. And whenever an agreement is reached in this regard, it will be announced at that time.”

China's considerations and preferences take precedence over those of the people

But Mohsen Baharvand, Deputy Minister of Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Mizan News Agency that since this document is still a subject of negotiations, we cannot make it public. Why? Because, according to him, “the other country (China) may not be willing to disclose the subject of negotiations due to its own considerations, and this information leak may lead to the loss of trust between the parties.”

Without naming anyone, Mohsen Baharvand said: "A gentleman came and said something, causing everyone to face problems; usually, whenever he spoke, he caused others to face problems and disrupted society."

The "Mr." referred to is former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who on July 27 in Gilan referred to the negotiations over this document and asked the government: "Are you the owner of the country that you give to others without the knowledge of the people and from the people's pocket?"

“Why are people unaware of the details of this document?”

In its editorial on Tuesday, July 8, criticizing the keeping the contents of this document hidden from public opinion, the newspaper Jomhuri Eslami wrote that China and Iran have been trying to finalize the 25-year-old document for a year and asked: "Why are the people unaware of the details of this document? Some people have claimed to have been informed of the contents of this document. If so, why shouldn't the public be informed of it?"

The newspaper wrote in response to officials who focus on Chinese “considerations” and “desires”: “They have said that China is worried that the open announcement of the contents of this document may cause American sabotage. If the Chinese really have such a strange concern, that is enough to conclude that they cannot be trusted. Why is a country that claims to be a superpower worried about American sabotage? Is it worried about itself or Iran?”

A long-term document with a country that has inflicted lasting "wounds" on Iran

The editorial in the Islamic Republic of Iran went a step further and pointed to the history of relations between the two countries and the “ally” that has focused only on its own interests during its relations with Iran. The newspaper wrote: “Just when discussions are being held about the 25-year Iran-China agreement, China is openly announcing that it has replaced Iranian oil with Saudi oil. While we still bear the scars left by China’s violations in the currency agreement during the Ahmadinejad administration, which was a currency Turkmenchai, we should not accept another 25-year agreement with China.”

The newspaper Jomhuri Eslami refers to an agreement concluded with China in 2008 during the Ahmadinejad administration. An agreement that was rightly called “currency swaps.” Based on this agreement, China did not pay Iran any money in exchange for its oil exports and used it as a guarantee for “LCs” for the purchase of Chinese goods. Even the management of this money was not the responsibility of Iran, but of China. An extremely humiliating agreement that made the Islamic Republic responsible for losses resulting from currency fluctuations and the loss of money. An agreement that was opposed and not followed up by the Eighth and Ninth Majlis.

The fight is over Mulla Nasreddin's quilt.

Amid speculation that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's goal in revealing Iran's 25-year-old agreement is to advance the next presidential election, Majid Reza Hariri, head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, in a special note for the "Contemporary Strategy" website, referred to the history of this document (December 2015, when the Chinese president visited Iran) and asked: "Why hasn't this comprehensive agreement been considered by the two countries for cooperation before now?"

According to him, last summer, Mohammad Javad Zarif "informed the Chinese side of Iran's latest economic proposals, and they were accepted by the Chinese. It was expected that the government would present its proposals to the Chinese side in a more serious and coherent manner during this period."

Majid Reza Hariri notes that the Rouhani government has only one year left in its life, and the final signing and implementation of this agreement does not give the Rouhani government any hope, “so right now, the fight is over Mullah Nasreddin’s quilt”; a fight between supporters and opponents of the government, who, according to Majid Reza Hariri, “interpret the agreement as they wish” and speculate that “China is colonizing us or we are going to become a colony of China.”

"A disgraceful contract" and from a "position of weakness"

Among Iranians abroad, the 25-year Iran-China agreement has many opponents, comparing it to the Turkmenchay agreement and considering it a betrayal of Iran's national interests. Reza Pahlavi, the last crown prince of Iran, described the agreement on his Twitter account as a "disgraceful agreement" aimed at "looting the country's resources and accepting a foreign army on the homeland."

Source: DW