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Iran says negotiating 25-year accord with China
TEHRAN, July 5, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif said Sunday that Iran has been negotiating a 25-year accord with
China whose terms will be announced once a deal is struck.
“With confidence and conviction, we are negotiating a 25-year
strategic accord with China,” Iran’s top trading partner, he told a
stormy session of parliament.
China is also a key market for Iranian crude exports, which however
have been dampened by US sanctions imposed after Washington’s 2018
withdrawal from a nuclear deal with Tehran.
An accord with China has been a hot topic on Iranian social media
since populist ex-president Mahmud Ahmadinejad last month denounced
negotiations underway with a foreign country.
But Zarif, who came under fire over the 2015 nuclear accord which
Iranian conservatives had opposed, insisted there was “nothing secret”
about the China deal.
The nation would be informed “when an accord has been concluded”,
he said, adding it had already been made public in January 2016 when
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Tehran.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2207hrs