Many parts of the recent Iran-China 25-year contract remain unrevealed for the people and even some of the regime’s officials. China forced the regime to obey its orders and not to speak about parts of this ‘country-selling’ contract. This indicates that china stands to benefit hugely from this contract, and the Iranian regime, or better said, the people and the country, are the main losers in this contract.
One part of this contract that has been revealed by the state-run media is China’s investment and exploitation of Iran’s gold mines.
It is highly unlikely that the Chinese are doing this in the favor of the Iranian regime or Iran and its people.
China previously entered the fishing industry of Iran in the Persian Gulf and has actually destroyed the life and work of the Iranian fishermen market and put a severe damage to the aquatic life cycle in this water. This action has been protested by the people of the region and the people of Iran.
Now the next country selling fact, which the regime is trying to contradict from the base, is reflected by its own media. Below are excerpts of an article in the state-run website Tejarat News, April 5, 2021:
“The Chinese have been working in Iran’s gold mines for a long time, but since the gold mines are in the hands of the public sector with more reserves, private sector activists still do not know what decision was made for the gold mines in the 25-year Iran-China cooperation document.
“Shahram Shariati, secretary general of Iran’s Youth Chamber of Industry, Mines and Commerce, says the Chinese have been working in the country’s mines for a long time, and the more attractive the working conditions, the more welcome they are.
“Regarding the 25-year cooperation document between Iran and China, we have not been informed about the details of the investment or exploitation of the mines, but what is clear is that the mines, including gold mines, are part of the investment agreements between Iran and China.
“Shariati, while emphasizing that from the past until today China’s contracts with the Iranian government have been non-transparent for the private sector, said: ‘Iran’s gold mines with high reserves are mostly state-owned, and if a contract is concluded in the technology, sales and investment sector is state-owned, and the private sector is not informed about the content of the contract and its news’.
“Bahram Shakoori, head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce’s Mines Commission, said that they did not provide details to the private sector about the details of the 25-year Iran-China agreement and added: ‘If the Chinese are going to exploit gold mines as before, only the public sector knows the details.’”
Then while being aware about the consequences about this situation, Shakoori, who is a government official, added: ‘We should not devote our interests to countries like China and Russia, and we should increase our interaction with the world, especially European countries, so that we can have the upper hand in economic contracts.’
“Earlier, Massoud Khansari, head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, in approving the Iran-China cooperation document, considered the country’s mines to be innumerable and in need of foreign investment.
“Currently, the definitive gold reserves in Iran’s mines are 250 tons, which are extracted by the public, private sectors and foreign investors.
“Now we have to see with the document of 25 years of cooperation between Iran and China, will the Chinese be more open to enter Iran’s mines than before?”
While this state-run news outlet is trying to play teeter-totter between the investment in Iran’s mines by the country’s so-called private sector which is in the hands of the regime’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the public sector, but it reveals that the regime fearing anti-government protests is using any way to hide the country-selling clauses from the people to have the opportunity to revive its money resources lost because of the sanctions. That of course is not in favor of the people but in favor of its malign activities.
