ג'יימס גורי: סין מספקת סיוע צבאי משמעותי לאיראן, מבלי לעבור במצר הורמוז

Now you wrote an article for the Epoch Times titled China's not so quiet hand in Iran's war effort. So can you talk to us about how China is helping Iran in this war? Sure. They're providing material for war making for maybe not necessarily weapons, but the materials for weapons such as solid missile fuel components, supply intelligence, and some navigational and visuals for the war effort that's not necessarily directly, you know, they're not sending the missiles per se at this point. So now can you walk us through how the Caspian Sea Corridor is being used in their practice, in practice? Well, sure. The Caspian Sea is a northern inland sea that borders on Russia and Iran. And it's not policeable by the U.S. Navy. So it's not subject to naval interdiction and surveillance so much as the state of Hormuz is. So it's supplying material through different land bridges, through Pakistan, through their Central Asian belt and road countries, and then coming down through either the Caspian Sea or cross land from say Iraq or other neighboring countries. So there's a variety of ways they're getting the material to Iran without having to go up through the Strait of Hormuz and be subject to U.S. Navy interdiction and inspection and so forth. So how much would you say this Chinese source material actually matters to Iran? And if the support stopped, what would that mean? Well, it matters to Iran because Iran's goal is duration. Iran is very aware of they're not going to win the war militarily. That's been established. But they will win. They could win politically. And they understand the U.S. election cycle. And they understand that a lot of the political base in the country for President Trump is not in favor of an extended war. So the longer this war goes on, the better it is for Iran. And to that point, China's supply chain, it's as diverse and redundant and elusive. It's providing Iran the ability to carry on and to extend the war, the duration of the war and make it difficult for the U.S., make it difficult for the Trump administration. So for China also, it's kind of the same reasoning by helping Iran that extends the war and hurts the U.S. Or is there any other reasons why China is helping? Well, China wants the U.S. to expend as much military financial resources as it can, make them do so, because that helps China in their initial region, in the South China Sea with Taiwan. China is expanding its presence in the South China Sea, in the Indo-Pacific region, virtually unchallenged at this point, because most of the U.S. assets are in the Middle East. Now, we know Iran was sort of preparing for this, because before the war started, they pretty much said, we are ready. So how does Chinese involvement change Iran's strategy? Or were they involved from the beginning, in your opinion? I just think that they went into this war not talking to the customer that buys 90% of their oil. So I'm sure there was a conversation more than one strategizing on what to do, at what point, under what conditions, and so forth. So Iran's not going to give an inch and say that we were losing the war, or we weren't ready, or we caught off guard. No, none of that. The fact is, is that Iran has maintained a belligerent and resistant, resilient attitude, at least, if not defenses in the face of this onslaught from the U.S. So there's no doubt in my mind that they're conversing, and have been, and will continue to converse with China, as well as Russia. Now, we know President Trump is planning to meet with Xi Jinping later in May in China. So is China jeopardizing its relationship with the U.S. by doing this? And what should we expect from this meeting? Well, I think China most certainly is jeopardizing its relationship. To use Trumpian terms, China doesn't hold that many cards. The fact is, is that China has lost its foothold and its position in Venezuela, care of the Trump administration. Now they are potentially losing a tremendous source of energy in Iran, care of the Trump administration. So for China to fight back and to make things more difficult for the U.S., there is certainly a cost to that. I think Trump will be more than happy to capitalize on that, and he has before. So I don't think that China is doing itself any favors, but I understand that this is a multilateral situation. It's not just Iran and the U.S. or China helping Iran, it's China having the U.S. burn up its capital in Iran and ignoring the Indo-Pacific, China's backyard, so to speak. That puts more pressure on Taiwan and some of the other U.S. allies in that region.