China Signs 25-Year Deal With #Iran in Challenge to the U.S. - Bloomberg

China Signs 25-Year Deal With Iran in Challenge to the U.S. - Bloomberg

China and Iran signed an overarching deal aimed at charting the course of their economic, political and trade relations over the next 25 years.

Beijing plans to invest in Iran while buying oil from the Islamic Republic, further straining its relationship with the U.S. which has already been frayed by China’s imports of covertly-shipped Iranian crude.

The “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” agreement, signed in Tehran on Saturday by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, has been in the works since 2016, when President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to visit the Iranian capital in over a decade.

The latest alliance between Beijing and Tehran is a challenge to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration as it sets about trying to rally allies against China, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said is the world’s “greatest geopolitical test.”