China's Xi Tells Saudi Crown Prince He Supports Saudi-Iran Talks
China’s President and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince have spoken by phone, discussing a wide range of topics including supporting follow-up talks between Riyadh and Tehran.
China’s President and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince have spoken by phone, discussing a wide range of topics including supporting follow-up talks between Riyadh and Tehran.
President Xi Jinping said in his discussion with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud that he hopes the two sides will continuously improve their relations on the basis of the results of the dialogue, state media CCTV said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Xi helped broker a surprise deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Middle East rivals, to restore diplomatic ties after seven years of rivalry and tensions.
Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers held a phone conversation Sunday and agreed to meet to work out the details of re-opening diplomatic missions.
The deal was seen as a major potential change in the Persian Gulf region and the Middle East not only for reducing Saudi-Iranian tensions but placing China as a regional diplomatic force. Many analysts saw the development as a loss for the United States, which for decades has been Riyadh’s close ally.
Continuing to promote and develop China-Saudi Arabia relations, Xi said the two countries will firmly support each other on issues involving their respective core interests.
China has become one of the major Saudi crude oil customers and investors and also enjoys considerable influence over Iran’s Islamic government.
China and Saudi Arabia will make more contributions to promote peace, stability and development in the Middle East, Xi said, according to state media.
Mahmoud Vaezi told Mashreq news in Tehran on Monday that “the night when we were informed the Americans had killed Qassem Soleimani in Iraq it was a very tough time. Then the downing of the Ukrainian plane was so hard to bear.”
Flight PS 752 was hit with two surface-to-air missiles as it was taking off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, in the tense aftermath of Iran's missile attack on United States military bases in Iraq. The missile attack on US bases was in retaliation for the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad days earlier.
Vaezi went on to say that President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other senior presidential aides were not initially told that the plane was shot down.
All 176 people onboard died in the incident, many dual-national Canadians, the Ukrainian pilots and crew, British citizens and others.
Iran first said that the crash was an accident but after video emerged showing projectiles hitting the plane and remarks by the United States and Canada that they had evidence of anti-aircraft missiles having been fired at the aircraft, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) admitted three days later that it was responsible for shooting down the airliner, resulting from “human error.”
“At that time, President Rouhani insisted on making a statement as soon as possible to tell the people everything,” he added, but before that “Rouhani, Foreign Minister Zarif and Roads Minister Mohammad Eslami did not know what had really happened.”
He went on to say that after news outlets abroad reported it was not an accident and the plane was shot down, the Rouhani administration followed up but they [the IRGC] denied, and “finally we found out the truth, but we were having a hard time.”
One day after the incident, President Rouhani’s spokesman denied that the airliner was shot down.
"All these reports are a psychological warfare against Iran...all those countries whose citizens were onboard the plane can send representatives and we urge Boeing to send its representative to join the process of investigating the black box," Ali Rabiei said in a statement.
However, Iran never allowed investigators to visit the country or interview any officials. After months of delay, Tehran passed on the flight data recorder to France for analysis, but no new information emerged. The issue was not how the plane had crashed but to find out who had issued the order to fire at the airplane.
In the three years since the tragedy, the families of the victims have explored multiple avenues to get answers from Iran, including taking the unusual step last year of filing a case in the International Criminal Court.
A sham trail of a few low-ranking military men was held in Tehran but victim families who attended a few court sessions dismissed the exercise as futile in uncovering the truth about which high-ranking officials were responsible.
Speaking to the press in his constituency in Yazd Province, Hojjat ol-Eslam Hossein Jalali said Sunday that punishments for flouting the hijab, according to the planned legislation, will include cash fines from 5m to 30b rials (around $100 to $60,000) and that other penalties may include revocation of drivers’ licenses and passports, or a ban on the use of the internet for celebrities and social media influencers and bloggers.
These penalties will apply to passengers who do not abide by the hijab rules while riding in vehicles, at restaurants, government organizations, schools and universities, airports and public transport terminals, in the cyberspace and to celebrities, and on the streets and other public arenas, Jalali added.
Hardliners have been looking for ways to strengthen the enforcement of hijab after their ‘morality police’ tactic of arresting women for “improper hijab” backfired with the death of Mahsa Amini last September, triggering nationwide popular protests.
Detainees were usually released after paying rather smaller cash fines but could also face prison and lashes if they had a previous record. Activism against the compulsory hijab could also bear serious consequences including prosecution and imprisonment.
The morality police has largely disappeared from the streets since Amini’s death in September and the resulting protests as authorities feared enraging people.
Four decades after the Islamic Republic forced women to wear headscarves, long tunics and trousers, or the long black veil called chador, women are increasingly appearing in public, even in many smaller and more traditional areas of the country, in regular clothing such as colorful dresses and with no headscarf covering their hair.
Young girl skating and dancing ‘hijabless’ at a park in western Tehran recently.
Many women say on social media that there is no way they will go back to dressing according to the government mandated dress code.
The plan, Jalali said, was finalized after “300 meetings with the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution and the National Security Council”. In December, amid nationwide protests, Jalali had said that thirty-seven different government organizations that were responsible for implementation of the existing hijab law had all received the relevant instructions to enforce it.
The government should submit the plan to the parliament in the form of a bill within the next couple of weeks, Jalali said of the envisaged plan which has been “brought to the attention of” the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Judiciary, implying their agreement with the new plan had been obtained.
Vida Movahed protesting against compulsory hijab in December 2017 at a busy streets in Tehran.
The new law, if passed, would exclude any “physical encounter” with women, Jalali said. He was apparently referring to plans to use CCTV cameras and facial recognition technology to identify women who flout the hijab, and use cash fines and social restrictions to punish them, instead of using the infamous morality police patrols on the street to issue warnings or make arrests.
The plans to eliminate physical confrontation were first revealed by the secretary of the Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad-Saleh Hashemi-Golpayegani.
He said at the time that CCTV footage from public places such as streets and public transport and facial recognition software would be used to enforce the hijab.
