Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
United States President Donald Trump is engaged in a high profile-attempt to pressure Iran to give up its ambitions to build nuclear weapons.
However, on March 14, 2025, China hosted Deputy Foreign Ministers from Iran and Russia to defend Iran’s nuclear weapons program in a direct display of defiance of Washington.
In a March 16 interview with ABC-TV news anchor Martha Raddatz, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz stated President Trump’s objectives:
“Well, what the president has … repeatedly said is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon…All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one. And that’s all aspects of Iran’s program. That’s the missiles, the weaponization, the enrichment. They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable, or they can face a whole series of other consequences.”
China, Russia and Iran, however — the 2025 version of the “axis of evil” — do not share this goal.
On March 12 Chinese state media announced their March 14 meeting, that included China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.
Also on March 14, the Iran Press Agency state media described the “big picture” meaning of the meeting like this:
“China, Russia, and Iran, as three countries with common interests in political and economic fields, are trying to strengthen their cooperation, especially in the nuclear field, to achieve a stronger position against the West. The Beijing meeting is also aimed at strengthening trilateral cooperation and exchanging views on possible solutions to regional and global crises.”A Joint Statement by China, Russia and Iran also issued on March 14 rejected U.S. pressure, saying, “The three countries emphasized that relevant parties should be committed to addressing the root cause of the current situation and abandoning sanction, pressure, or threat of force.”
This Joint Statement did not demand that Iran cease its development of nuclear weapons but did stress that they “supported Iran's policy to continue cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and stressed the need to fully respect Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as a State Party to the NPT [Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty].”
So, China and Russia are shielding Iran from U.S. pressure to reveal and dismantle its nuclear weapons program. And Iran is relying on a malleable non-government organization with no teeth, the IAEA, to lead nuclear negotiations...
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