Iran y China They are close to signing a sale of supersonic anti-ship missiles when the American navy takes positions to attack the Islamic Republic. Chinese weapons, according to experts, multiply defensive capacity and will generate Donald Trump anger similar to that China experiences over arms sales to Taiwan. There will be no shortage of business on the table when Xi Jinping and Trump meet next month in Beijing.
The agreement is close but there is still no delivery date, says the Reuters agency, citing six anonymous sources close to the negotiations. These had started two years ago and received a boost after the 12-day war with Israel from last June. In summer, according to the agency, Deputy Defense Minister Massoud Oraei arrived in China in secret visit. It is unknown how many missiles are involved in the operation, their price or whether China has backed down on the eve of what seems like an announced war. The Arab sources consulted suggest the opposite: “Iran has military and security agreements with its allies and this is the appropriate time to use them,” he reportedly said. China has refused to comment on an agreement that would break the arms embargo that the HIM reimposed on Iran last September.
He CM-302 It is the best missile in the world to sink a ship, whether it is an aircraft carrier or a destroyer. This is presented by the state company Aerospace Corporation of Science and Industry. It may not be the best but experts praise its destructive capacity. “It completely changes the rules of the game if Iran has supersonic technology to attack ships in the area. They are very difficult to intercept“said an expert from the Israeli think tank Institute for National Security Studies. The missile could be mounted on ships, airplanes or land mobile platformshas a 290 kilometer range and is designed for evade defenses with its low and fast flight. It is, in short, the most serious threat to the US navy when it already has Iran within reach. The aircraft carrier sails through the nearby waters USS Abraham Lincoln and he is on his way USS Gerald R. Ford. The Islamic regime has already exhausted half of the 10 days that Trump granted it on February 19 to sign an agreement on its nuclear program or suffer a military attack.
Key country
Iran is also negotiating the purchase of the surface-to-air missiles known as MANPDADS and of missiles against satellitesReuters sources say. This frenzy suggests that Iran has broken China’s reluctance after it halted its massive arms sales in the mid-1990s under international pressure. The only American accusations are related to the chemical precursors aimed at the Iranian ballistic program that Beijing denied. It is customary that annual military maneuvers China, Russia and Iran irritate Washington.
The supply of cutting-edge weapons would increase support that until now was limited to diplomacy and trade. Last year, during a military parade, Xi Jinping told his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkianits defense of territorial integrity and national dignity. In January, when the drums of war were already louder, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yiwarned against “the law of the jungle.”
Iran is key to New Silk Roadthe commercial megaproject with Xi’s presidential seal, and so is China in the “tour to the East” which Tehran has accentuated after Washington’s hostility. Beijing has been the airbag against the international blockade for decades and the 12-day war strengthened security ties against what Tehran perceives as external threats. But his help, even in the harshest moments, was not military.
The relationship has not lacked friction. Iran recalled the Chinese ambassador for consultations after Beijing signed a Gulf Cooperation Council statement questioning its territorial claims to three islands in the Strait of Hormuz. China buys huge quantities of iranian oil but rampant corruption and social unrest explain the dwindling investments. China’s total trade with the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries in 2024 reached $257 billion; with Iran it barely reached 14 billion.
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