China pledged - before the arrival of its foreign minister, Tehran - to seek to protect the nuclear deal and defend what it described as its legitimate interests in relations with Iran, which supplies it with large quantities of crude oil despite US sanctions.
A Ministry of Commerce spokesman said today, Thursday, that his country had not received notification from the administration of US President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Iranian oil.
Reuters has revealed that Iran has transported record quantities of oil to China during the past few months, indirectly, and as shipments of oil from the Sultanate of Oman, the Emirates or Malaysia.
The agency indicated two weeks ago that Iran had transferred, during the past 14 months, about 18 million tons of crude oil, at a rate of 360 thousand barrels per day, to China, its largest oil customer.
An oil tanker anchored in an oil port in the Chinese province of Ziyang (Reuters)
Chinese message
The director of the island’s Beijing office, Nasser Abdul Haq, said that the Chinese official statements issued today, and the statements of diplomats, indicate Beijing’s desire to defend its vital interests and remain a key player in the Iranian nuclear issue.
He referred to the statements of some former diplomats, including a former Chinese ambassador to Iran, that Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Tehran on Friday may constitute a message to the United States that China has been and will remain an active element in the Iranian nuclear file.
He also indicated that China has strong economic relations and interests with Tehran, including the huge quantities of Iranian oil that it imports every year, in addition to the Chinese investment projects in Iran, which are estimated at billions of dollars.
The director of the Al-Jazeera office said that the Chinese statements indicate that Beijing is seeking to preserve its great interests with Iran.
He explained that it also comes in light of the current tension between China and the United States, and the pressures exerted by the latter on domestic issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, or on China's foreign policies.