TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif has rejected reports that Tehran and Beijing had signed an agreement on strategic cooperation for 25 years.
In an interview with IRNA on Monday, Zarif said a deal as such with China was only an idea proposed by Iran.
Dismissing speculation that Iran had offered significant concessions to China under such the deal, Zarif said the rumors were basically false.
Asked about reports on the contents and articles of the deal, Zarif underlined that such an agreement does not basically exist, let alone have any articles.
A proposal has been put forward for a 25-year plan that still needs to be negotiated and drafted, the minister added.
Earlier this month, well-regarded energy industry publication the Petroleum Economist reported that Iran and China had updated a 25-year deal signed first in 2016 that foresees $400 billion of Chinese investment in the resource-rich Middle Eastern nation.
The update came during a visit at the end of August by Zarif to Beijing where his Chinese counterpart State Councilor Wang Yi called the two countries as "comprehensive strategic partners”, it claimed.
According to the Petroleum Economist, the deal represented "a potentially material shift to the global balance of the oil and gas sector” and could mark a "seismic shift in the global hydrocarbons sector” where no U.S. dollars will be involved in commodity transaction payments.