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Iran turns The Art of the Deal upside down


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2017 Sep 17, 6:34am   1,639 views  2 comments

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Tehran busy signing massive infrastructure deals with China's CITIC and European partners.

As President Hasan Rouhani prepares to address the UN General Assembly in New York and the Trump administration and allies relentlessly lobby for the Iran nuclear deal to be decertified, Tehran is busy clinching deal after deal with Asians and Europeans.

For the Chinese government, Iran – and Pakistan – are so geopolitically important that they are treated as Home Affairs nations in East Asia (and not the Middle East, in the case of Iran), alongside Japan and Indonesia.

And just like Pakistan via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Iran is an essential node of the New Silk Roads, a.k.a. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

For Tehran, Beijing is a major player in international trade/finance. At the Belt and Road forum in Beijing in May, Iran’s Economic Affairs and Finance Minister Ali Tayyebnia extensively discussed deals with Chinese Finance Minister Xiao Jie. Chinese companies in construction and energy infrastructure equipment – as well as in steel and chemicals – are present all over Iran.

Enter the deal just signed between China’s CITIC and a consortium of Iranian banks worth $10 billion in loans.

Enter as well a BRI-related railway modernization drive, with Beijing providing $1.5 billion to electrify the Tehran-Mashhad trunk line, and another $1.8 billion for a high-speed rail linking Tehran, Qom and Isfahan.

These upgrades fit into two BRI vectors; to increase China’s trade/connectivity not only with Iran – all the way to the port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz – but also with Turkey. Freight trains ideally should be running non-stop between Xinjiang and Istanbul as early as 2020.

That should be no mean achievement. Iran is the key connectivity link in routes through both Central Asia and the Caucasus. A key proposed route runs from Xinjiang to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and southeast Turkey. China South Corporation (CSR) – the world’s largest manufacturer of locomotives – expects the whole finished high-speed rail link to cost around $150 billion.

More: http://www.atimes.com/article/iran-turns-art-deal-upside/

#Geopolitics #Economics #China #Iran #Deals

Related: China provides $10 billion credit line to Iran. Iran is vital to China’s trade ambitions as it develops its trillion-dollar “One Belt, One Road” strategy aimed at dramatically boosting its ties to Europe and Africa

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-provides-10-billion-credit-line-to-iran/story-LlUFC1zEeHgVI3lw0pvB0J.html

Comments 1 - 2 of 2        Search these comments

1   Shaman   2017 Sep 17, 9:06am  

China is cutting USA politics off at the knees, so if you support the status quo, you are already a loser!!! The swamp must be drained or the consequences will be dire!
2   mell   2017 Sep 17, 12:05pm  

Quigley says
China is cutting USA politics off at the knees, so if you support the status quo, you are already a loser!!! The swamp must be drained or the consequences will be dire!


Nobody will stop them making deals with whom they see fit, that is global trade, even if the US would ctaer to Iran. Thus any war, sanctions, help/money and other deals are wasted on Iran. Just stay neutral and let the free market make deals. The US could do the same by enhancing trade with Russia, unfortunately the neocon deep state swap is in the way.

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