TEHRAN - The signing of 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership between Iran China was an “important warning” to the U.S., Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told an open session of parliament on Sunday, reminding Washington that the course of developments at the international scene are not in line with the interest of the White House.

Qalibaf also said the U.S. is no longer in a position to unilaterally impose a “model”, “plan” or an “agreement” to independent states.

The comprehensive strategic partnership, which sets the roadmap for cooperation in different areas, was signed in Tehran on March 27 between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Speaking in favor of the partnership, the speaker said the document shows that the world is not just limited to the West.

“We clarify that we welcome this move. If the signing of the document is based on this belief that the world is not just the West and that the future century (21st century) is Asia’s century it would be considered a strategic step,” the pragmatic senior lawmaker pointed out.

The parliament speaker went on to say that the document could have been inked earlier because “we believe that a lot of time for shaping real economic and political cooperation and also effective resistance against the oppressive U.S. pressure has been wasted.”

“However,” he added, “the moment should be seized and turn this document, by considering national interests, to projects, plans and economic and political cooperation.”

He also suggested that ties with other countries, especially neighbors, should be upgraded to “strategic level” and be implemented immediately.

Mojtaba Zonour, chairman of the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has said Iran is seeking such a long term and strategic partnership with Russia.

Calling the strategic partnership a “general roadmap”, Qalibaf said certainly when the times arrives for implementing the document by the two governments, the Majlis will supervise “treaties and agreements” and will act to its duty to precisely study approve them in accordance with national interests and will brief the public about its details.

Hossein Hosseinzadeh, the chairman of the Majlis Oil and Energy Committee, told IRNA on Sunday that after the signing of the partnership with China a number of European countries and big European companies have expressed readiness to do business with Iran.

The MP also said uneasiness of certain countries, including the United States, about the partnership shows the importance of the document.

He said Iran has signed the document, which contains valuable contents, with “open eyes” and with a “strategic outlook”

Pointing to China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative (BRI), which is the reactivation of the 2000-year-old Silk Road, Hosseinzadeh said now the world’s economic look has changed from the West to the East with the centrality of China.

The head of the Majlis Oil and Energy Committee said through implementation of the BRI project and according to expert views more than 70 countries in different parts of the world will join the economic and commercial projects with China and the geographical status of Iran, as the Chinese themselves acknowledge, is very effective in the BRI.

It should be acknowledged that China will turn into a giant economic power in the world in the future years, he added.

Saeed Leilaz, a professor of economics at Shahid Beheshti University, says the cooperation document with China should be viewed in tandem with Iran’s independence and keeping the country powerful.

Writing in the Iran newspaper on Saturday, Leilaz said the partnership is a document in the post-Trump world which Iran can once again create a balance between the East and the West through it.

He suggested even the proponents of relations with the West should be happy about the document because it can prompt the West to return to the negotiating table and show them that Iran’s hands are not tied in finding ways for an “independent life” and that “it is not alone”.

Andrew Korybko, an American geopolitical analyst, has told the Tehran Times that “China is arguably the best partner that Iran could ever have.”

Korybko says, “The reportedly promised Chinese investments will enable the Islamic Republic to modernize its economy and emerge as a regional production powerhouse with time.”

PA/PA