The Iranian regime has sold Iran’s natural resources to China in a bid to keep power at any cost, with many officials and state-run media outlets openly calling out this agreement, but many details about this “strategic and comprehensive plan” still remain unknown because the mullahs haven’t published them.

The Arman daily wrote Saturday that China will “receive the lion’s share of this agreement” because the regime has offered many concessions that Iranian nationalists never would have done.

In a second article about the deal, Arman wrote: “Iran’s economy has always been at the service of politics and security. These two misconceptions have led the value of the national currency to free fall in the face of sanctions. Due to the lack of strong economic structures, other parameters have also fallen, and innocent people are under the pressure of domestic mismanagement and large-scale embezzlements. The middle-class families have fallen under the poverty line.”

Of course, this is far from the first criticism that the deal, which has been in talks since 2013, has faced from the Iranian media.

Back in July 2020, Jahan-e Sanat warned that China would not be a “reliable partner” because it would sooner side with the US to maintain access to their financial markets than with Iran. While in September 2019, Petroleum-Economist reported that the deal would give Chinese companies:

• “first refusal” on any new, stalled, or uncompleted oil and gas field developments, opportunities in petrochemicals, and projects in Iran
• a minimum 12% guaranteed discount on oil, gas, and petrochemicals
• the use of low-cost Iranian labour to build factories

So what does the regime get? A chance to strengthen their hold on power and stave off protests by the poor and disenfranchised through increased military co-operation.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: “The anti-Iranian mullahs’ regime auctioned the resources and properties of the people of Iran in a 25-year contract with China. Last year, I did emphasize that the lives and health of Iranians, their water and land, their culture, and national resources do not have any value for Khamenei, Rouhani, and other regime leaders. The mullahs only think of preserving their own religious fascist dictatorship, which Khomeini said is the most important issue. He said they could even forsake the precepts of Islam to preserve the regime. Therefore, the mullahs could not care less about protecting the Iranian people’s assets and resources.”

The deal has angered the Iranian people and led to protests across the country.