"סין מנסה לספק חבל הצלה כלכלי למשטר האיראני"

Talks between the U.S. and Iran are on and off. Meanwhile, China's ties to Iran remain under the spotlight. To discuss the latest developments, NTD's Steve Lance speaks with Stefano Rittendell, Chief Intelligence Officer at Artorias and an Army veteran. Now, Stefano, China has reverse engineered U.S. rifles, provided Iran the ability to manufacture them, among other things. How does the United States' strategy towards Iran have to be sort of strategically aware of China's role in supporting the regime, also with dual-use components to support their missile manufacturing? That's right. I mean, I think one of the key aspects of the Iranian ballistic missile program is wholeheartedly dependent on China. They've been one of the key conduits. Obviously, we saw that report that China is going to sell manpads or short-range air defense systems to Iran to really target the United States and their ability there. And then obviously, the Chinese, outside of just the military component, have always been one of the key economic backers of Iran. And I think the Achilles heels of Iran right now is their economy and the naval blockade that the United States has imposed, the sanctions that are there that's really caused the Iranian economy to stand at a halt. China's trying and is the most likely culprit to provide that lifeline to the Iranian regime. And I think the United States is going to be wise to look at the Chinese angle to try to see where and how they might support the Iranians. Now, it's also important to note that the Chinese are exposed in a lot of these sanctions, and they also don't want to necessarily run into a lot of these sanctions that the U.S. has imposed against Iran. And so they're going to be very cautious. And we know that China might take a step back if the United States takes a much more aggressive approach. It's important to note that in the naval blockade that the United States has announced against Iran, we haven't seen any attempts by any vessels, either even remotely associated with the Chinese government or Chinese businesses, try to run the blockade. So it does show that when the United States takes a forceful approach, it is effective in denying the Iranians their economic and military lifeline.