China supports regional naval alliance plan

China pledges to strive for peace and stability in West Asia, including Persian Gulf, by promoting plans for a regional maritime alliance.

A question regarding Iran’s intention to create a naval alliance with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Persian Gulf nations that will also include India and Pakistan to protect regional stability was addressed by Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Speaking at regular press briefing, Wang also noted that “upholding the peace and stability of the Persian Gulf region in the Middle East (West Asia) bears on the wellbeing of countries and people in the region.”

Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of the Iranian navy, had announced earlier that Iran will create new intra- and extra-regional partnerships to improve security.

“Today, regional countries have realized that the establishment of security in the region requires synergy and cooperation,” Irani stressed.

The Chinese spokesperson stressed the vital importance of peace and stability in the region at the news conference in order to preserve world peace, accelerate global economic growth, and maintain a steady supply of energy.

“China supports regional countries in resolving disputes and cultivating good-neighborliness and friendship through dialogue and consultation,” Wenbin added.

Beijing, he declared, will continue to contribute positively and constructively to the cause of regional peace and stability.

US authorities were not pleased with Admiral Irani’s announcement of the formation of a joint naval alliance.

Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, purportedly said that Iran’s participation in a regional naval alliance defies reason and that the Islamic Republic is the primary cause of maritime instability in the Persian Gulf region.

The parameters of the regional alliance are taking shape a year after the Israeli regime claimed that it, along with the United States and regional Arab allies, would form a Middle East NATO to fight Iran's dominance in the region.

American and Israeli military leaders touted the notion ahead of President Joe Biden’s July visit to West Asia.

The goal was to improve cooperation among allies in order to defend each other against envisioned Iranian threats.

Israel’s hopes for a coalition against Iran, however, have been dashed as a number of Persian Gulf Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, have started to change their allegiances and normalize ties with Iran.

Iran has recently made maritime breakthrough that can shake the US position in the world including the 86th Naval Fleet, which included the home-built Dena Destroyer, and came home last month after the first round of the world in a mission dubbed 360-Degree.

The flotilla sailed across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans without needing assistance from land for the first time in Iran’s naval history.

It departed from Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Persian Gulf, on September 20, 2022. It finally anchored at Oman’s Salalah harbor on the 236th day of its journey. The flotilla traveled 63,000 kilometers and four times crossed the equator.

Last month, Admiral Farhad Fattahi, the commander of Iran’s 86th Naval Fleet, outlined achievements of the flotilla after a round-the-world voyage.

Admiral Fattahi emphasized that the first achievement of the voyage can be mentioned as the design, production and operationalization of the all-Iranian meteorological software, which was developed by Iranian youths in the army and yielded fruitful results.

“Secondly, we have proven that the Iranian products are totally trustworthy and reliable. It means that the Dena destroyer is an Iranian product that is 100% reliable,” he added.

The admiral continued, “Given the maritime diplomacy, one of the achievements is that the flotilla docked in the port of Rio de Janeiro to mark the 120th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Iran and Brazil.”

“Another remarkable achievement is that Iran’s flag was waved in the world’s four major oceans, seven seas and seven strategic straits,” he noted.

The admiral also said that a unique phenomenon emerged in the cultural sphere as the flotilla’s commanders and staff were representatives of Iranian-Islamic cultural values.

Admiral Fattahi remarked that during the mission, we used the home-built Dena destroyer, whose capabilities grabbed the attention of other countries’ naval commanders and forces. This came as no surprise that all naval commanders expressed congratulations over building such a military feat.

 

Iran: World’s top oil pipeline developer

Global Energy Monitor, in a recent report, has said Iran is the world’s top country in terms of oil pipelines under construction.

Based on the report, the Iranian Oil Ministry is also among the world’s top oil pipeline developers.

According to new data from Global Energy Monitor, Africa, and West Asia are home to 49% of all oil transmission pipelines under construction globally at a cost of US$25.3 billion.

The 2023 annual survey of data in the Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker shows that these regions together are building 4,400 kilometers (km) of crude oil transmission pipelines at an estimated capital expenditure of US$14.4 billion.

An additional 10,800 km are proposed in these regions at an estimated cost of US$59.8 billion.

Globally, there are 9,100 km of oil transmission pipelines under construction and an additional 21,900 km of proposed pipelines. These pipelines in development are estimated to cost US$131.9 billion in capital expenditure.

The total 31,000 km of oil pipelines in development globally represents an increase of nearly 30% from this time last year.

The leading five countries in terms of in-development pipelines (proposed and under construction) are Iran, the United States, India, Iraq, and Tanzania.

The top five parent companies developing oil pipelines are state-owned enterprises and private companies, including Iran’s Oil Ministry, the China National Petroleum Corporation, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited, and France’s TotalEnergies.

The longest pipeline projects under construction are the 1,950-km Niger–Benin Oil Pipeline and the Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline (PNCPL) in India, both slated to start operating in 2024.

Canada is home to the third-largest pipeline project under construction, the 980-km Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX), expected to start in 2023 as an expansion to the existing Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline.

Growing Chinese influence in West Asia

The announcement of an Iranian-Saudi détente after seven years took the international community by surprise. What has perhaps emerged as a bigger surprise is that the deal between Tehran and Riyadh was mediated by China and announced at a ceremony in the country’s capital Beijing.

While Iraq and Oman had tried to bring the two sides back together, it was the Chinese government that managed to clinch a deal in an impressive display of its diplomatic muscle. 

China previously avoided engaging in conflicts between countries beyond its borders, but that policy appears to be changing as it comes on the backdrop of Beijing’s peace proposal to end the Ukraine war that was appreciated by both Kyiv and Moscow.

For many decades, the dominant outside force in West Asia has been the United States, despite objections by a number of regional governments. Washington has hundreds of military bases amid the Pentagon’s efforts to maintain the US hegemony in the region.

Over the past two decades alone, the United States, under the name of its war on terror, has waged wars and triggered conflicts that have seen an unprecedented sharp rise in terrorism and terrorist groups.

With the blessing of Washington and its key regional ally, Israel, the newly formed terror groups under war on terror have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, especially in Afghanistan Iraq, Syria and Libya. Millions of others have either been injured or displaced from their homes because of America's disastrous foreign policies.

While the US waged war on Afghanistan, Iraq, and indirectly on Syria and Yemen, it has also played a major role in destabilizing West Asia by interfering and fomenting unrest and terror in countries such as Iran and Lebanon while at the same time using all its means to pit one country against the other in the region.

American arms manufacturers and the Zionist regime has been the main beneficiary as a result of Washington’s military adventurism at the expense of the vast number of civilian bloods that has been shed.

Some in West Asia have mistakenly relied on the US for their security purposes, not realizing that once America’s interests are no served by that country, Washington simply abandons it along with all of its alleged security guarantees.

This has been witnessed in various times, most notably in Afghanistan. To a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia has felt skeptic over the US support for the war on Yemen.

China's role in securing the Saudi-Iran deal is a tricky test for the US. Scenes of Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission; Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; and Minister of State and National Security Adviser of Saudi Arabia Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban posing for pictures during a meeting in Beijing contains an element that is sure to make officials in Washington feel deeply uneasy.

The role of China as a peace broker in a region where the US has long wielded influence will take the Pentagon aback. The White House says the US is closely monitoring Beijing's behavior in West Asia and elsewhere. 

The wider picture will be viewed by Washington that some in West Asia have come to the conclusion that their dependency on the US no longer serves their interests.

China has no military bases in West Asia. In fact, China has no bases anywhere in the world. The only Chinese soldiers based outside the country are the ones serving under the UN peacekeeping force in Africa.

Beijing does not wage wars, nor does it have any desire in waging or instigating wars or conflicts. It does not even seek to compete with the United States in the fields of economy or military. 

Experts say China is now the number one economic powerhouse in the world and that appeal to nations in West Asia and beyond.

Over the past decade, many have come to their senses that forging closer ties with China brings economic prosperity for their own people, with no strings attached. 

Unlike Washington, Beijing does not set conditions or ask favors from other countries who seek to trade and cooperate with it.

In a further sign that the Saudis are looking to forge closer ties with America's foes, last year Riyadh and Beijing held talks over the export of Saudi oil in the Chinese currency and not the dollar. 

The US has been viewing China’s growing ties with regional countries as a threat to its own interests in West Asia, and for this reason it has raised tensions with China. 

It is US aircraft carriers sailing next to Chinese waters and not the other way around. Washington has also made ludicrous accusations of a Chinese weather balloon that Beijing admitted strayed off course, as an espionage object and dramatically used fighter jets to shoot it down. 

The fear-mongering and disinformation campaign against China clearly hasn't worked as evidenced by Tehran and Riyadh signing a deal in Beijing to restore their full diplomatic relationship.

The US military approach has brought nothing but disaster to West Asia, while the Chinese approach of advocating peace has been met with international praise, with the exception of the US and Israel of course that sought to side with the Saudis to isolate Iran.

What will disappoint the US the most is that the China-backed Iran-Saudi deal also offers the hope of calming the situation on the ground in other West Asian countries, such as Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. 

Former senior American diplomat Jeffrey Feltman said China's role was the most significant aspect of the agreement.

"This will be interpreted - probably accurately - as a slap at the Biden administration and as evidence that China is the rising power," said Feltman, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

China's involvement in brokering the Iran-Saudi deal could have significant implications for Washington, said Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama.

"The question is, whether this is the shape of things to come?" he said. "Could it be a precursor to a Chinese mediation effort between Russia and Ukraine when Xi visits Moscow?"

The declining US-led world order has been so damaging that China now feels the time has come to step in and try to reverse the vast level of global instability the Pentagon has caused and no region is more insecure at the moment than West Asia.

It is perhaps fair to say that the days of the US wielding its sinister influence in West Asia are slowly but surely coming to an end. 

 

United States responsible for bringing Vienna talks to a halt

The United States is solely responsible for the current state of the Vienna talks, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday. “Let us all not forget that the government which is in front of us today is not a government that adheres to its obligations,” Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters in his weekly presser. 

The spokesman said the United States is trying to hold the remaining issues pertaining to the Vienna talk hostage to its internal affairs.

“Iran and Iranians cannot be patient forever. If the United States wants to reach an agreement, it must make a political decision as soon as possible,” he asserted.

When asked about European Union coordinator Enrique Mora's trip to Tehran, Khatibzadeh said, “During this trip, he carried some points of views and wanted to exchange opinions with us. We told Mora about our point of view. Our messages and demands were clear from the beginning. Mora's trip was to get us all out of this situation. Iran tried to use another way to resolve the remaining issues. So far, Iran has had the most initiatives.”

The spokesman continued by saying that Iran is waiting for the other side's response, but it has not received it yet.

On the pause in the talks, the diplomat said it was clear to Iran in the last two weeks that Joe Biden and the White House have not made their decision and have taken the whole agreement hostage to US partisan and internal affairs. 

“The Biden administration takes the same approach that has led to the failure of many international agreements, which is to make an international agreement subject to their own internal conflicts.

The JCPOA agreement and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 are the perfect examples, and it is in this context that the Biden government must make its political decision,” Khatibzadeh noted.

The spokesman said that the United States is responsible for bringing the talks to a halt. 

“The solution is in the White House,” he reiterated. 

The US must respond logically to Iran's reasonable demands, which are approved by the P4+1 members, so that we are ready to return to Vienna, Khatibzadeh noted. 

“An agreement is very much available if the United States understands that we will not cross our red lines or fall short of our demands,” the diplomat asserted.

Responding to a question about the remaining issues in the negotiations, the spokesman said, “It was not at all like we connected the West Asia region to the JCPOA." 

Iran's benefits from the JCPOA are in accordance with the text of the agreement, and UNSCR 2231 is the main mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the spokesman said. 

“Now, in the final steps, the United States is trying to prevent Iran from benefitting from the various aspects of the JCPOA. We are at a point where the Biden administration wants to follow the failed legacy of the Trump administration or act as a semi-responsible government. International actors see that the Biden government is following the same path of the previous government,” Khatibzadeh pointed out.

Responding to a question, the diplomat said that illegal and unilateral sanctions have become a common practice in the United States.

“The US believes that it is the police of the world and the domestic laws of this country are international laws. Bullying will not work,” the spokesman remarked. 

Khatibzadeh once again reiterated that Iran’s red lines are the interests of the people and the benefit of what was once discussed.

“The whole deal depends on Washington's political decision. This has been the situation for weeks now. It is a matter of individuals and entities that should be removed from the sanctions list according to the JCPOA, in addition to Iran's economic benefits from the deal. These are issues that are delaying Washington's political decision,” he stressed. 

The diplomat stated that the Biden government must show that it is the true representative of the American people.

“We have not yet received the final answer from Washington, and if Washington's answer is appropriate, we can go to Vienna as soon as possible with the points raised, not for new negotiations, but to finalize the agreement. The response and signal must come from Washington,” the spokesman concluded. 

Talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have come to a standstill due to the Biden administration’s inability to make tough political decisions.