Iran insists potential deal with China ‘not secret’
- Iran’s foreign minister told parliament that they are ‘negotiating a 25-year strategic accord with China’
- He said details will be made available once the deal has been struck
Iran has been negotiating a 25-year accord with China and the terms will be announced once a deal is struck, the foreign minister told a stormy session of parliament Sunday.
“With confidence and conviction, we are negotiating a 25-year strategic accord with China,” Iran’s top trading partner, Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
During the session, Zarif was heckled by lawmakers, largely over his key role in negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which the US unilaterally abandoned in 2018 as a prelude to reimposing biting sanctions.
It was his first address to parliament since a new house started work in late May in the wake of elections that were dominated by conservatives and ultraconservatives.
Zarif insisted there was “nothing secret” about the prospective China deal.
