TEHRAN - An expert on international relations argues that China as a great economic power has the ability to mend the ties between Iran and Europe and thereby facilitate trade between Iran and the European continent.

The comments by Sabah Zanganeh comes as China successfully brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March. Following the agreement an Iranian team, led by Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, started negotiations with the Saudi side headed by the country’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Beijing. The talks started on Thursday, April 6.

Zanganeh is of the opinion that China seems willing to play a role in relations between Iran and Europe.

“Currently, China has practically turned into a ‘qibla’ of different countries, especially hotspots in the world. One of the great crises is one between Russia and Ukraine, and China has put forward initiatives in this regard and is seeking to resolve the conflict peacefully,” he pointed out.

“One of other crises and regional issues was the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia which through mediation by China led to an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” he added.

The international relations expert added another crisis was “actually created” by former U.S. President Donald Trump when he quit the multilateral 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and now the agreement is in “suspension” and this has caused concerns among the Europeans about Iran’s nuclear program.

Now it seems that in such a situation China is a focus of attention so that it can “play a role” and prevent tensions between Iran and Europe.

The JCPOA was actually a “European initiative” but it turned into a multilateral agreement which entails efforts by all European countries to resolve the issue, he commented.

The comments by Zanganeh comes as French President Emmanuel Macron, whose countries is one of the signatories to the JCPOA, made a three-day trip to China and held high profile talks with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.  The main agenda of Macron’s visit to China was to encourage Beijing to use its influence to convince Russia’s Vladmir Putin to end the war on Ukraine.

“France is a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council with a veto right. China is also a permanent member of the Security Council…, but the difference between France and China in view of Europe is that China has more economic power and can facilitate the path of international trade through mending ties between Iran and Europe.”

He added, “If such a thing happens it will benefit both China and Europe… and naturally the role of China concerning relations between Iran and Europe and ameliorating the economic condition is determining.”