Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen asked China to “influence” Iran to cease developing its illegal nuclear weapons program, inviting Beijing to play a bigger role in the Middle East as relations with the United States under leftist President Joe Biden have deteriorated.
Cohen (pictured) made the request in a conversation on Monday with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, a day before held a massive parade to mark its annual “Army Day” in which it once again threatened to destroy Israel. President Ebrahim Raisi specifically vowed “the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv” and debuted what appeared to be new military hardware, a drone model not yet seen in public.
Qin reportedly spoke to both Cohen and Palestinian Authority diplomat Riyad al-Maliki on Monday, apparently seeking a mediation role for China in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorists. Qin’s overtures follow a shock announcement in March that the Chinese Communist Party had intervened in the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, leading talks between the rivals’ respective governments that resulted in the two sides agreeing to reopen embassies in their countries and restore commercial flights to each other.
China has long been an ally of the Iranian Islamist regime, part of a growing axis of anti-American states prominently including Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and North Korea. China’s friendship with Saudi leaders, however, has grown following Biden’s promise to make the traditional U.S. ally a “pariah” and a disastrous trip to Riyadh that ended with the OPEC+ cartel, which Saudi Arabia de facto leads, announcing historic oil production cuts.
Similarly, the Biden administration has alienated Israel by sternly criticizing the government’s attempts to reform its judicial system – an internal, sovereign matter – and Biden himself refusing to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, even after his underlings had said publicly that Netanyahu should expect an invitation soon.
Describing the talk with Qin on Twitter, Cohen said that he had encouraged Qin to have China participate in convincing Iran to cease developing nuclear weapons.
“I spoke today with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. I called on him to exert his influence on Iran to stop the progress of the nuclear program,” his statement read, “which poses a danger to many countries in the Middle East and the world.”
“The State of Israel will act in any way to prevent the terrorist regime in Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” Cohen concluded.
שוחחתי היום עם שר החוץ הסיני צ׳ין גאנג. קראתי לו להפעיל את השפעתו על איראן כדי לעצור את התקדמות תכנית הגרעין, שמהווה סכנה למדינות רבות במזרח התיכון ובעולם. מדינת ישראל תפעל בכל דרך על מנת למנוע ממשטר הטרור בטהראן להשיג נשק גרעיני. pic.twitter.com/Ocg8qpoG06
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) April 17, 2023
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Qin as discussing hostilities against Israel by Palestinian groups, not Iran, but offering the Communist Party’s involvement in the Mideast matter, anyway. China “is ready to provide convenience” for “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinians, Qin reportedly said, proposing that the two sides following the guide of genocidal dictator Xi Jinping’s “Global Security Initiative,” a vague proposal that discourages all countries, except China, from pursuing their individual interests and to instead subordinate those national interests to an undefined greater international good.
“All parties should maintain calm and restraint, and stop excessive and provocative words and deeds, Qin said,” according to Xinhua, “adding that the fundamental way out is to resume peace talks and implement the ‘two-state solution.’”
Qin also reportedly said that Xi’s China is open to expanding “exchanges at all levels with Israel, enhance mutual political trust and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.”
Xinhua omitted any mention of Iran beyond stating that Cohen responded to Qin’s invitation for Chinese involvement by stating that “Israel attaches importance to China’s influence, pays high attention to the Iranian nuclear issue and expects China to play a positive role.”
According to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Qin also sold China as a potential mediator in his conversation with Palestinian Authority representative Riyad al-Maliki, noting that China had successfully convinced Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore relations and could potentially offer a similar service to the Palestinians.
While making overtures to Saudi Arabia – inviting King Salman to Tehran for an official visit this week – Iran has shown little interest in anything but the destruction of Israel. During his remarks at the Army Day parade on Tuesday, Raisi promised Israel violence on the part of his radical Islamist regime.
“Enemies, particularly the Zionist regime [Israel], have received the message that any tiny action against (our) country will prompt a harsh answer from the armed forces, which will accompany the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” Raisi said. While Tuesday marked Army Day in Iran, Israel is currently observing Holocaust Memorial Day.
Raisi made his threats after weeks of growing violence in Israel fueled by Iran-backed terrorist organizations, most prominently Hamas.
Israel’s conversations with China occur as the rift between the country and the Biden administration grows. Among the sharpest points of disagreement is Biden’s Iran policy. Biden was vice president when then-President Barack Obama signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, that greatly enriched the Islamist theocracy while doing little to stop its nuclear program. Biden has, on occasion, expressed interest in reviving the deal, which former President Donald Trump exited.
In 2021, Biden sent an envoy to Vienna, Austria, where the remaining signatories of the JCPOA intended to meet, but the envoy, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, was not invited to the meeting and spent his time at a different hotel in Vienna than the one hosting the conversations, resulting in no meaningful exchanges between Malley and any of the other parties.
More recently, in early April, the Washington, DC, corporate outlet Axios claimed, citing anonymous “U.S. experts,” that Biden was seeking a path to granting Iran sanctions relief in exchange for cuts to the Iran nuclear program.
In contrast to these overtures, Biden has been publicly critical of the Israeli government, going so far as to refuse to invite Netanyahu to the White House. Biden told reporters in March that he would not invite Netanyahu to Washington “in the near term” because he disagreed with Netanyahu’s domestic policies on judicial reform.
“Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned, and I’m concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road,” Biden scolded at the time. “And I thought I made that clear. And I — hopefully the prime minister is going to act in a way that he’s going to try to work out some genuine compromise. But that remains to be seen.”