Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi's trip to Beijing
Including Iran MFA's official readout and a translation of Araghchi's People's Daily article
With Christmas behind us I’m trying to get back into a routine before heading to campus. Thankfully there hasn’t been too much China-MENA news to stay on top of over the past week, although the two-day
trip to Beijing for Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Araghchi is worth a standalone post.
Iran FM in China for ‘new chapter’ in bilateral ties -Tehran Times. Araghchi arrived in China on Friday, and said the point of the visit was to “engage in consultations on regional, international, and bilateral issues." On the regional side, Gaza, Israel, and Syria were the main talking points, with calls to end the occupation of Palestine and for foreign powers to not interfere in Syria, which is rich. Araghchi also used a favorite phrase of Chinese FM Wang Yi: “the Middle East belongs to the people of the Middle East; it should not be a battleground for great power rivalry, nor a victim of geopolitical struggles and conflicts by external powers.” I think most people in the Middle East would appreciate the sentiment, although in practice external powers tend to be quite important in an unstable and competitive region. But for China and Iran to make this point, given their cooperation with Russia in Syria, isn’t going to play well in the Middle East.