Iran in Total Panic as China Pulls Back at SCO Summit! Xi Abandons Iran to Side with the US? | Decoded

Iran thought it had a backup plan. America sanctions you, go to China. America bombs your tankers, China will buy them. America isolates you, China will stand with you. That was the promise sold to 90 million Iranians for years. It died in a 30 second hallway encounter in Bishkek. No meeting, no handshake photo, no flags. Just Xi Jinping walking past Iran's president like he doesn't even exist. The cameras caught it all. Tehran calls it a strategic partnership. China just showed the entire world what it really thinks about Iran. Iran is a discount oil shop, not an ally. And today the question, shaking Iran is not about America, it is about betrayal. Hello and welcome, I am Nikita Kapoor and you are watching Decoded. And in this episode viewers, we decode, has China just shown Iran the door, the exit door. Let's break down what actually happened. In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, the SEO summit. Xi Jinping meets everyone. Put in Central Asian leaders, full bilateral meetings with agendas, delegations, joint statements and so on. Iran's president Pezeshkian, he gets a sidelined polar sight. No table, no flags behind. Just a brief exchange in the corridor like they ran into each other. And Tehran noticed almost instantly. Hezmatollah Falad Pesheh, former member of Iran's National Security and also Foreign Policy Committee, did not mince words at all. He posted on X, and I'm quoting here, Xi's cold reception of Pezeshkian was this eastern vendor's message to America amidst the war. What some in Iran called a strategic partnership was for China nothing more than a superficial relationship. That is what he said, superficial. That is the word that is trending in Tehran right now. And then came the second bomb. Even more explosive than the snub, viewers. Hossein Marashi, a very senior centrist leader in Iran, Secretary General of Executives of Construction Party, gave an interview to Eco-Iran. He claimed that China has set conditions for Iran before it will even deepen cooperation. Yes, and listen to these conditions he claims China told Tehran, just so their leaders can visit. Condition number one, you open the Strait of Hormuz, you do not charge transit fees. Condition number two, you resolve your issues with Saudi Arabia and the United States of America. Condition number three, only then can your parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghaliba, come to China. Let that sink in, viewers. Ghaliba was personally appointed by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei himself, as Special Envoy for China Affairs in May. It's September, he hasn't even been able to get a ticket to Beijing. If Marashi is right, China is telling Iran, fix your problems with America and Saudi Arabia first, then talk to us. China is telling Iran to surrender to the very countries Iran's Look East policy was supposed to protect it from. China is essentially saying that we want cheap oil from you, but we don't want your war. We want your market, but we don't want your sanctions, your problems. And now Iran is fighting with itself over this particular snub. As soon as Marashi's claims came out, Mohammad Bagher Ghaliba's own office panicked and issued a denial. They said, don't publish claims that affect national interests. And the hardliners on the other hand, they went for the throat directly, viewers. A newspaper, which is the Supreme Leader's mouthpiece actually, called Marashi a facilitator of White House policies and accused him of poisoning Iran's relations with the East from within. Farce news agency run by the IRGC went even further. They demanded Marashi be prosecuted for saying this. Now why such a violent reaction? Because the hardliners have staked their entire legitimacy on China and Russia. If the public realizes that China sees Iran as a liability, not an asset, especially right now during a war, then the whole we don't need the West narrative collapses instantly. So what is the truth here? Well, China is playing a very cold, very calculated game. It has a 25-year deal with Iran on paper worth $400 billion. But in reality, China has bought Iranian oil at a massive discount, paid in yuan and invested almost nothing. Why? Because China does $700 billion of trade with the United States and European Union. It does maybe $15 billion with Iran. Who do you think Beijing will choose? Second, the war right now, the United States has launched Operation Economic Outcast against Iran. The European Union just joined it. South Korea, on the other hand, is considering deploying to the Strait of Hormuz to help the United States. China does not want to be openly seen as shielding Iran when America is bombing Iranian tankers. And third, the message to Washington. Xi Jinping snubbing Pezeshkian at the SEO summit, a summit that China itself leads, is a very public signal to U.S. President Donald Trump. So here is the question I leave you with, viewers. For years, Iran told the world, if you sanction us, we will go east. Today, the east just showed Iran that there is a door, but it's not fully open. It's half closed. And there is a bouncer standing right there saying that fix your fight with America first and then you can enter. Is Iran's look east strategy dead now? Has China abandoned Iran at its most desperate moment? Or is this just a temporary cold shoulder? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Did Xi just dump Iran to please Trump? I am Nikita Kapoor, this was Decoded, and I will see you in the next episode.