So Where Does China Fit In the Iran War?
Nearly everywhere and it is making China nervous, read on...
A not-frequently-mentioned alliance with Iran is that of China - 80% of Iran’s oil export goes to China, at least it did until last week.
But the relationship is not linear nor 2-dimensional, read on and listen in…
VIDEO: https://rumble.com/embed/v74n2gq/?pub=2pn15
“The US went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon,” argues policy analyst Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East.
Riboua is the founder of the China in MENA Project, which tracks Chinese influence and expansion across the Middle East and Africa (MENA - Middle East, North Africa).
Is there a bigger dimension to the Iran war that people are missing?
“We have this tendency to just look at the countries involved, … but there’s a big player, and the big player here is China. … China has been investing immensely in the region in the last two decades, in courting, in coordinating, in cooperating with Gulf countries, with Iran itself, and also with its proxies,” she says.
And why, I ask her, has China been so keen on gaining strategic influence over the Middle East?
It’s because the CCP understands, she says, that “China cannot rise without having the United States weakened in one of the most important regions in the world. ... Iran has been that tool. China has built Iran’s military arsenal. It has collaborated extensively with Iran’s proxies, especially the Houthis. … And reversing that calculus is what Operation Epic Fury is doing.”
In our interview, we delve deep into the symbiotic relationship between the two countries - why China needs Iran and why Iran needs China:
Which role does Iran play on China’s geopolitical chessboard?
Why did China turn Iran into one of its strategic allies, and how did the Islamic Republic benefit?
How dependent is the Iranian regime on China’s military support and surveillance infrastructure?
How dependent is China on Iran’s oil?
The goal of America’s military operation, Riboua believes, is to dismantle the whole structure of the Islamic Republic: “The United States is destroying… every single launcher, every single missile facility. Their whole Navy has been absolutely crushed. … It’s 2000 targets so far, and they’re hitting even more.”
We also discuss what the Chinese regime will do if the Islamic Republic disappears:
How will its geopolitical strategy be impacted?
What will happen to its Belt and Road initiative, in which Iran played a central role?
How will China’s economy and its relationships with its Middle Eastern and African proxies be affected?
Zineb Riboua has a Substack here…
