The two leading adversaries of the United States, Iran and China, entered into a 25-year agreement on political, strategic and economic cooperation, declaring the shah on Washington.
It was a bolt from the blue!
Joe Biden's administration, having come to power, was completely relaxed;
it seemed to them that they were living in an era of complete American hegemony and could boldly scold the Russian president, reprimand China and rob Iran.
It was especially difficult for Iran: the United States laid a paw on its resources in Western banks, banned the use of dollars, the world's leading settlement currency, and banned the sale of oil.
Although theoretically Biden declared his desire to return to the nuclear deal, from which Trump came out, in practice he demanded that Iran "reconcile and submit, and then we'll see."
Iran was ready to return to full compliance with the deal if and when the US lifted all sanctions on it.
Biden only offered to give Iran a small part of the confiscated ("frozen") Iranian funds, and to lift the sanctions only after new negotiations, the expansion of the nuclear deal, the ban on the development of the missile program, the end of support for Syria, Hezbollah, and Iraq.
That is, Biden followed Trump's path, although he spoke about the opposite.
And then the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who had just turned the heat on the Americans in Alaska, flew to Tehran and signed a 25-year treaty with Iran.
It was a strong move.
The Americans thought they had all the cards, but it turned out - nothing of the kind.
We are talking about a significant, multiple expansion of trade between the two countries, about the abandonment of the dollar in mutual settlements, about joint actions in the field of defense.
Strong agreement.
So strong that Iranian emigrants to the United States have already shouted: they say, the mullahs sold Iran to China (and should have given themselves free to America).
This is welcome.
The countries against which yesterday's world hegemon took up arms - Russia, Iran, China, Turkey - must interact so that they are not strangled one by one.
Immediately, we note that Russia entered into a ten-year agreement with China 20 years ago and has since extended it twice for five years, and the other day, during the upcoming visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Tehran, a new agreement between Russia and Iran is being prepared.
Russia is aware of Iranian-Chinese relations, and this topic was discussed during Lavrov's recent (last week) visit to Beijing.
So there is no cause for concern.
What is there in the agreement between Beijing and Tehran is not known exactly.
In the face of confrontation with the United States, revealing one's cards would have been dangerous, and the treaty remained secret.
China, like Russia, is trying to minimize the conflict with the United States.
He, with all his economic power, is even more cautious than Russia.
Recall that China refused to grant asylum to the fugitive American intelligence agent Edward Snowden, and Russia accepted him, despite the protests of Washington.
And China has been very cautious about Iran.
After Trump imposed illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran, Chinese purchases of Iranian oil fell by 90% and reached 3% of all Chinese oil imports.
Instead of Iranian, China began to buy oil from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, fearing US sanctions.
China is also developing military and intelligence cooperation with Israel, Iran's main regional adversary.
So the new agreement marks a major turnaround in Beijing.
However, the Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers stressed the importance of the nuclear deal, declared loyalty to its principles, welcomed Biden's statement of his intention to return to the nuclear deal, that is, they tried not to aggravate it.
And on the front of the fight against coronavirus, they followed Biden's precepts - they took pictures with masks and touched each other with their elbows - although under Trump they were photographed without masks and shook hands.
China has promised Iran several hundred thousand ampoules of its own Chinese vaccine.
The United States has reacted vividly to the Sino-Iranian agreement.
Although before that it seemed that they were in no hurry, but then they immediately woke up and offered to meet Iran halfway.
They proposed starting negotiations with Iran, lifting some sanctions, and Iran, according to their scheme, should stop purifying uranium to 20%.
This is the third proposal of the Biden regime to Iran.
The first was mocking: "We will give you part of your money, and you fully comply with the conditions."
Second: "We will remove some of the sanctions, and you fully comply with the conditions."
Third: "We will lift some of the sanctions, but you do not purify uranium and sit down at the negotiating table."
So far, Iran has stubbornly refuses to negotiate.
There is nothing to negotiate about, Tehran says, until the US lifts all sanctions and pays Iranian money.
When / if this happens, Iran will return to the terms of the 2015 deal.
The agreement with China has added confidence to Iran in its strength.
The United States has expressed its concern.
There is not much time left before normalization - in May, the three-month delay agreed by the IAEA and Iran will end, presidential elections will take place in Iran in the summer, and in the fall the United States will not be able to return to the deal without the approval of the US Senate.
That is, before the summer you need to complete the diplomatic square dance.
Against this background, there is an exacerbation of the Iranian-Israeli differences.
An Israeli official during a recent visit to Moscow said unofficially that rebuilding the 2015 nuclear deal would be a casus belli, a pretext for war from Tel Aviv's perspective.
The Israelis admitted that their submariners mined and blew up dozens of Iranian tankers, causing multibillion-dollar damage to Iran.
Israel said the Iranians responded with a missile attack on an Israeli businessman's merchant ship — although Iran denied this.
In the US, Democratic hawks oppose reconciliation with Iran until Israel gives them the green light.
So progress is taking place, things are going well, as the sans-culottes sang.
It is difficult to predict how the implementation of the Sino-Iranian agreement will proceed.
Tehran and Beijing have repeatedly announced bright plans, which later turned into nothing.
But this time, perhaps, indeed, Iranian oil will flow to China and the Iranian economy will be able to catch its breath.
Full membership of Iran in the SCO, and even in the EAEU, would be a big and important step.
Saving Iran could also save the Syrian economy, which collapsed under the pressure of US sanctions.
The situation is difficult, but the dynamics are positive.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.