TEHRAN – A member of the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said on Friday that Iran formulates its foreign policy based on national interests.

Fada Hossein Maleki made the remarks in an interview with IRNA regarding the signing of a 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership between Iran and China.

Hours after the foreign ministers of Iran and China signed the strategic partnership on March 27, U.S. President Joe Biden said he has “been concerned about that for a year.”

Fada Hossein, a former diplomat, said, “Americans are worried about this (partnership) because they always want Iran to be hung in the air.”

Now China’s economic ties with Europe exceeds 500 billion dollars and the Westerns say nothing about it and don’t say that Europe is being reliant on China or even don’t say anything about the great volume of China-U.S. trade ties but “when Iran wants to sign an agreement with China, they say China is making Iran dependent on itself,” Iran’s former ambassador to Afghanistan explains.

Maleki said it is a fact that Iran enjoys a “unique strategic situation” in the region and it should have commercial, economic, political, and even military relationship with neighboring and regional countries and “this is the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran and it is acting according ” to this vision.

Maleki, who represents Zadehan in the parliament called the partnership with China “historic” and said, “The document of Iran-China cooperation is strategic that defines the prospects of cooperation between the two countries and can provide a good impetus to cooperation between the two countries in areas of commerce, politics, and economy.”

Noting that China as a great economic power needs Iran as trade partner, he dismissed speculation that Iran has given unilateral concessions to China.

The interests of Iran have been surely taken into consideration more than what certain people claim, he added.

In the light of the fact that cooperation in the fields of commerce, economy, politics, and energy has been included in the comprehensive document, he said these are things that related bodies in each country should pay due attention to when drafting agreements.

On reports that the document with China may limit Iran’s cooperation or halt investment by other countries, he said, “This is a reality that for years we had put what we had in Westerners’ basket but we did not get anything instead.”

He also refuted rumors that Iran has given control of free trade zones such as Chabahr port, Qeshm, or Kish islands to China, saying even an inch of these zones has not been given to the Chinese.

The MP said as India is now developing Chabahr port cooperation with China will also be in the same framework.

Foreign Minister Zarif has said partnership is neither an agreement nor a treaty and doesn’t entail commitment by each side. The chief Iranian diplomat also said the document does not include any figure or number and doesn’t relinquish control of any part of land to any country.

The senior diplomat also said relations with China don’t negate having good ties with other countries or economic blocs, saying they are interdependent.

“In order to have good relations with China, we should have good relations with Europe. And if we want to have good relations with Europe, we should have good relations with China,” Zarif pointed out.

PA/PA