China's arms supply to Iran encourages Tehran's terror
Sep 09, 2022
Beijing [China], September 9 : China's arms supply to Iran helps and encourages Tehran's terror as Beijing is doing nothing to prevent its technology from going to the hands of Iranian proxy militias.
On August 4, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf informed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China has supplied the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) utilized by Iranian proxy militias in recent years.
Leaf further said that the state did not give them, yet the state didn't attempt to limit that flow, Al Arabia Post reported.
Drones, especially those supplied by China, are acquired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and then they ship them to dozen proxies spread across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Drones from China, have become mainstays in the arsenals of Iran-backed terror organisations. In 2019, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen deployed drones to attack the Saudi oil production sites and after two years, Houthi drones targeted the oil ship, owned by Japan and managed by Israel near Oman.
The drones were used in August 2022 when the terrorists supported by Iran conducted an attack on US military outposts in southeast Syria.
China's BeiDou military-grade transmission access was only given to Iran and Pakistan. In October 2015, Iran Electronics Industries, a state-owned company of the Defense Ministry, signed a deal with China to gain access to BeiDou, according to Al Arabia Post.
China and Iran are slowly knitting their relationship. On April 28, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe visited Tehran to hold talks with senior Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi, stated the media reports.
The agreement was announced by the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, who told reporters, "In Wednesday's meeting with the Chinese minister of defence, we agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in joint military drills, exchange of strategies, training issues and other common fields between the two countries armed forces so that we can provide better security for the two countries territories."
Last year, in March, China and Iran signed a 25-year cooperation agreement to strengthen economic and political relations.
A whopping USD 400 billion will be invested in expanding bilateral economic, military, and security cooperation under the terms of the agreement.
China is cleverly leveraging tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran by supplying both nations with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Fearing Iran's belligerence, Saudi Arabia signed a contract with China in March to build a drone factory in order to create UAVs domestically. The transaction was signed by state-owned defence firms from both sides, Saudi Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems Co. and China Electronics Technology Group, according to Al Arabia Post.
Riyadh has been purchasing Chinese drones since 2014 when it ordered the Wing Loong II and CH-4 spy and strike drones. These precise versions are duplicates of American drones, and both can carry two air-to-surface missiles as payloads.