U.S. Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley
President Joe Biden has said he plans to bring the United States back into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and appointed Robert Malley, the chief adviser on the Middle East under Obama, as the U.S. special envoy to Iran. U.S. media reported that Malley has quietly contacted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu about the Iranian nuclear issue.
Malley is said to be tasked with renewing multilateral diplomacy in an effort to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear program. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Feb. 10 that Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu had an “in-depth exchange of views” on the Iranian nuclear issue during a call initiated by U.S. Special Envoy to Iran Ma. But the Biden Administration has not spoken publicly about the call.
What exactly did they say? The State Department, which was contacted by the U.S. news site Axios, did not disclose details about the call with the Chinese Communist Party officials.
A State Department spokesman told Axios in a statement that Iran envoy Marley is in the early stages of building close relationships with members of Congress, allies, partners and others.
The Obama administration received support from the Chinese Communist Party in facilitating the signing of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
But the Trump administration strongly opposed the deal, finding that the Iran nuclear deal was seriously flawed and did not limit Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025, or Iran’s role in the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.On May 8, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions on Iran that were exempted as a result of the Iran nuclear deal.
To circumvent the U.S. sanctions, Iran sells oil to China by smuggling. Kpler, a data intelligence company that provides transparent solutions for commodity markets, first told U.S. radio station Radio Farda to Iran last July that the Indian tanker Giessel had delivered Iranian oil to China on June 13 disguised as Indonesian oil.
Subsequently, TankerTrackers.com, an international tanker tracking company, confirmed the revelation, adding that 1.6 million barrels of Iranian oil were smuggled to China by the Giessel. As long as the Chinese Communist Party provides Iran with an economic lifeline, it seems easier for Iran to resist Western pressure.
Iran has now pressured the Biden administration to begin restricting access to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors on Feb. 23 if the U.S. does not lift economic sanctions, which would severely limit the agency’s ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear work.
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