Making sense of the Iran-China strategic agreement
April 26, 2021 Share
The 25-year agreement between Iran and China that made headlines this past month is far from new. It was first announced in 2016 during a state visit by President Xi Jinping to Tehran, at a time when sanctions on Iran were being lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. Chinese and Iranian officials have been working out the details of the deal ever since as part of a slow process of consultation and negotiations.
This process was doubtless complicated by the sudden uncertainty created by Washington’s abandonment of the 2015 nuclear deal and decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran from 2018 onwards. However, negotiations between Iran and China accelerated again as U.S.-China tensions increased and Beijing began looking for ways to push back on what it calls American “bullying,” such as the extraterritorial sanctions imposed on Iran.
Making sense of the Iran-China strategic agreement
mei.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mei.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Letters
Shrewsbury 24
As most readers will know, the 24 Shrewsbury building workers falsely convicted in 1973-74 had their convictions quashed on March 23 this year after 47 years.
A big story - so big that even
The Guardian carried over a page on it, which quoted Keir Starmer saluting this “huge victory” and TUC leader Frances O’Grady boasting that the fact they “never gave up” was “proved right” in the end. It’s a pity that the cleared men didn’t get that support at the time of the trial, when it mattered, as Des Warren - one of the six accused who was jailed - made clear in his 1982 book
Published date: 3 March 2021 13:14 UTC | Last update: 1 month ago
In the Christian-majority, northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, a community uprooted by the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014 is now preparing for an event that, just a few years ago, seemed unimaginable: a visit by His Holiness Pope Francis.
When IS entered Qaraqosh, which lies 30km from Mosul, the town s entire population - save two elderly ladies - fled to neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan, leaving militants to a campaign of looting and destruction. Churches were desecrated, steeples toppled, statues smashed; Christian homes were looted and set ablaze.
After liberation by Iraqi forces in 2016, IS graffiti marred walls across the ruined and deserted town, while a church hall used as an IS bomb-making facility was still full of chemicals, explosive components and IS stencils.
Edi Israel/FLASH90
As British citizens are given a ‘roadmap to freedom’ from the restrictions of the COVID pandemic, a vast army of Iranians are tasting the delights of a different kind of liberty.
In spite of the severe ‘lockdown’ on religious observation imposed by the ayatollahs, there are now thought to be as many as several million Christians in the country.
This is in spite of an extremely harsh clampdown on dissenters. Conversion from Islam is forbidden, as are satellite dishes. But such is the hunger for outside information that many are prepared to run the gauntlet of state sanctions and have thus found freedom in Christ through a satellite TV network headed up by
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.