Iran ‘Will Never Bow’ to US Bullying, ‘Won’t Be Stopped’ in Pursuit of Its Goals, Raisi Tells Xi

The leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Friday. A day earlier, the Iranian president also met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Tehran will not allow itself to be browbeaten into submission by Washington, and will continue to plot an independent course, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said.

“Iran, irrespective of all enmities, has not been stopped and will not be stopped. It has managed to continue its path of progress and development,” Raisi said during his face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The Islamic Republic will never bow before US bullying,” the president added, recalling Washington’s decision to walk out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal and to reinstitute crushing sanctions against Iran in 2018.

Raisi thanked Xi for his support for Iran’s entry into the SCO, and for Beijing’s role in talks on making Iran a member of the BRICS group of nations, which currently include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The president also praised the historic 25-year Iran-China strategic partnership agreement penned in 2021, characterizing it as a sign of the West and East Asian powers’ readiness to take relations to a new level.

“The vast capacities in the fields of oil and energy, transit, agriculture, trade and investments are a very suitable platform for deepening and developing economic relations between the two countries,” Raisi said.

For his part, Xi characterized China’s relations with Iran as “strategic,” and said that ties will continue to “develop of irrespective of any international event.” The Chinese leader praised Iran for its independent position on international issues, and invited Raisi for an official visit to China.

Raisi’s meeting with Xi follows his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. At that meeting, Putin announced that work on a major new agreement that will take relations between Iran and Russia “to a strategic level” is nearing completion.

“We are serious about the development of bilateral relations. Our relations are not ordinary, they are of a strategic nature. Cooperation can continue to develop in the political, trade and economic, as well as space and aerospace sectors,” Raisi said at his meeting with the Russian leader.

Trade between Russia and Iran grew by 81 percent in 2021, and jumped another 30 percent over the first five months of 2022. In July, the two countries signed a $40 billion energy cooperation agreement, and in August they agreed to expand collaboration in automotive manufacturing and to continue the push for the dedollarization of trade.