Iran was central to China’s Middle East strategy; No more

: World Tribune; 03 July 2025; Hits: 16

FPI / July 3, 2025

Iran had been a key cog in the emerging anti-American axis in the Middle East led by China and including Russia.

Then Israel quickly dismantled Iran’s warfighting structure via a series of targeted strikes known as Operation Rising Lion.

The United States followed by bombing Iran’s nuclear strongholds at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

“The war is about more than battlefield gains. Washington and Jerusalem have undermined Iran’s place in the Middle East, and by doing so have destabilized the anti-American axis — led by China and Russia — of which it is a part,” Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, noted in a June 23 analysis for Mosaic Magazine.

Israel’s Operation Rising Lion also eliminated senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), destroyed missile- and drone-production hubs, and severed Teheran’s command networks.

U.S. President Donald Trump chose that moment to launch Operation Midnight Hammer, ordering U.S. strikes on the sites that formed the backbone of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The precision strikes carried out by Israeli and American forces in days devastated what Iran had been building for nearly five decades.

“Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has cast itself as the vanguard of global resistance to Western dominance,” Riboua wrote. “Its revolutionary ideology fuses Shiite political theology with a militant, anti-Western breed of anti-imperialism, portraying the United States and Israel not simply as geopolitical adversaries, but as existential enemies of a divinely ordained order. The Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, encapsulated this worldview by framing of America as the ‘Great Satan’ and Israel as the ‘Little Satan,’ and making ‘Death to America’ his regime’s enduring slogan.”

For China and Russia, Riboua continued, “this narrative of a sacred struggle against the West offers a moral framework for challenging the U.S.-led order — making Iran not just a strategic ally, but an ideological force within the axis.”

Iran is central to China’s Middle East strategy, “not simply as a regional partner but as a strategic asset through which Beijing can challenge U.S. dominance,” Riboua wrote. “By deepening ties with Teheran, China establishes a presence in one of the most conflict-ridden areas of the world while avoiding the risks and costs of military entanglement. This approach gives China access to energy resources, port infrastructure, and intelligence-sharing opportunities that would otherwise be extremely difficult to obtain. Iran’s entrenched hostility to the United States and its isolation from the Western financial system make it uniquely suited to host Chinese economic and security initiatives under conditions that shield both parties from external scrutiny.”

Aside from its ideological utility, Riboua noted that Iran plays three major converging geostrategic roles in the Russia-China axis:

• First, it destabilized the Middle East through a sprawling proxy network in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen — consisting of armed movements designed to encircle Israel, weaken American allies, and shift the regional balance through relentless asymmetric warfare.

• Second, it served as a critical strategic asset to Moscow and Beijing by facilitating sanctions evasion and anchoring diplomatic coalitions aimed at eroding the U.S.-led order.

• Third, it offered geographic and logistical depth to the axis, acting as a bridge between Eurasia and the Middle East, and enabling Russia and China to expand their influence across energy corridors and strategic chokepoints.

For communist China, Iran’s role was vital to its infrastructure push across southern Asia, known as the Belt and Road initiative. For Russia, Iran offered a rear base of operations for military and paramilitary coordination.

Full Text . . . . Current Edition . . . . Subscription Information

Free Press International

Iran was central to China’s Middle East strategy; No more, WorldTribune.com