TEHRAN-- Almost all Iranian newspapers focused on the joint China-Saudi Arabia statement critical of Tehran’s role in the region.

The state-run Iran newspaper wrote that “under the pretext of the Chinese President’s visit to Riyadh, Westerners launched an attack on the Iranian government on the agenda. Their joint statement was enough for a political faction to name it as China’s betrayal of Iran and also the failure of the government’s foreign policy.”

The Iran newspaper believes that the strategic relations between Tehran and Beijing have remained stable in different conditions, citing examples, the volume of Iran’s oil sales as well as the numerous U.S. sanctions against Chinese companies under the pretext of cooperation with Iran are a clear proof of this claim. Also, China voted decisively against the fact-finding investigation into human rights abuses in Iran. Beijing’s negative votes on the political resolutions of the (International) Atomic Energy Agency are another evidence.

The pro-reform Sharq newspaper, however, ran a big heading titled “Saudi tricks”, and wrote “after the joint statement of Saudi Arabia and China, the President of China attended a joint meeting with the leaders of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, which ultimately led to another statement against Iran. The statement condemned Iran’s (alleged) continued support of terrorist groups and militia in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria,

Yemen and other countries, which threatens the national security of Arab countries and destabilizes the region.”

China has joined global diplomacy against Iran, Sharq quoted Hamid Aboutalebi (the former political consultant to Rouhani) as saying.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia will seek regional consensus with the help of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and also prepare to create an Arab-Israeli alliance against Tehran in the shadow of Netanyahu's return to power.

Also, the Etemad newspaper, which is close to the reform front, stated that Beijing prefers its national interests over any strategic relationship. China’s policy was to refrain from entering into controversial issues between countries, but this explicit cooperation with the anti-Iranian positions by countries on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf is considered a dangerous breach of habit.

Arman-e Melli: People no longer listen to reformists

“The reformist faction has lost its meaning and its base has disappeared. To think that people will listen to reformists is rejected and does not match the realities in the society. In the past, the reformists made retreats on some issues, which disappointed the society towards them,” Hossein Ansari Rad, a reformist political activist, said in an interview with the Arman-e Melli publication.

Ansari Rad also said, “In the current situation, reformists can help the country as experts and sympathizers in crisis management; they can mediate in solving the current crisis of the country and the government should also allow this to happen. The government should seek help from political groups to solve the country’s problems and overcome crises.

Economy, culture and social indices have not progressed over the past years. This situation has caused the people today to be dissatisfied with the state of the country’s management and their lives; they have had to express their dissatisfaction in the streets.

The policy of unilateralism in the international arena does not achieve the desired result. It is not useful for us to try to have economic relations only with eastern countries and avoid western countries. The JCPOA could reduce our foreign policy problems.” 

Kayhan: A full-scale hybrid war against Iran

The Kayhan newspaper also interviewed Andrew Korybko, a Moscow-based American political analyst, to find out that how the events of the last three months in Iran match the definitions and characteristics of hybrid war.

“The recent events in Iran are the result of the intervention of foreign forces to activate the faults in the society and the weaknesses in the government, with the aim of creating an armed conflict between the people and security forces. Some protesters were cheated due to false and misleading information launched by foreign media. While another group has been directly connected with foreign and hostile intelligence and security organizations. The enemy’s goal of such actions and provocations is to create a permanent circle of unrest.

Cognitive warfare and sanctions exacerbate existing fault lines in society. These two war tools make the anti-government sentiments stronger. When an unforeseeable event occurs (the death of Mahsa Amini), a suitable platform is created for abuse and the implementation of predetermined plans.

America is the master of launching hybrid wars in the world. During the last decades, especially at the beginning of this century, Washington has tested different tools of hybrid wars. Scientific circles, experts and intelligence forces and policy makers carefully study the target societies to identify the faults. After identification, in the framework of cognitive warfare, sanctions and terrorist actions are imposed in order to intensify the problems,” Korybko remarked.

Arman-e Emrooz: Focused on East, upset with West

Arman-e Emrooz slammed the conservative faction for looking at the Eastern countries and avoiding the Western countries.

Iran’s international relations have entered a new phase, and it seems that just as they have abandoned relations with the West and China getting closer to Saudi Arabia, it seems that the international relations of the current government, which is shaped by the slogan of ‘look to the East’, to remain at the current level or to decrease.

Iranian national strategy, however, is the one that its old politicians from Amir Kabir to Dr. Mossadegh had undertaken and that is ‘negative balance between the East and the West’. That is, we will not pay ransom to China and Russia, nor to Europe and America. 

Of course, Saudi Arabia’s strategy is a positive balance, that is, it gives points to both China and America, both Russia and Europe. But anything is better than our association with the East and the betrayal of China and Russia. With the Russians, we have gone so far to give the West an excuse to call us Russia’s partner in the Ukraine war, and one of the opposition parties invited NATO to attack Iran.

And in relation with the Chinese, we were so excited about the membership in the Shanghai Pact that we forgot that the Chinese turned their backs on Iran in the Security Council in the nuclear case until today when they are interviewing the political opponents of the Islamic Republic on their state television; they have always shown that they are not Iran’s eternal friends, and of course there are no eternal friends and enemies in politics.