The China-Iran-Russia Axis
*The 2025 Threat Assessments issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence state: “China, Russia and Iran will remain the most pressing foreign threats to our critical infrastructure…. We expect [non-nuclear] Iran to remain the primary sponsor of terrorism and continue its efforts to advance plots against individuals – including current and former US officials – in the United States…. China, Iran, and Russia will use a blend of subversive, criminal, and coercive tactics to undermine confidence in US democratic institutions….”
*In March, 2025, Iran, China, and Russia challenged the US’ strategic posture in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, conducting another joint naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, which is critical to the global supply of oil, a vital trade route between Asia and Europe, and an epicenter of anti-US Islamic terrorism. Iran’s rogue collaboration with China and Russia extends beyond the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean all the way to Africa, Latin America and the US homeland. In addition, the military, financial and diplomatic cooperation with Russia and China has bolstered Iran’s mastery in economic sanctions evasion, which includes deceptive oil shipping practices.
*According to UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran), ”Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, China has been willing to sell arms, ballistic missile components, and anti-access/area denial weapons systems to Iran. In the 1980s and 1990s, China provided Iran with nuclear technology and know-how that assisted its development of a nuclear weapons program…. China has steeply increased the quantity of its oil purchases from Tehran and as the main purchaser of Iranian oil, enjoys considerable leverage over Tehran…. In 2021, Iran was granted further access to Chinese satellite navigation systems for military purposes…. In March 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed that Iran procured from Chinese suppliers machines to process nitrile butadiene rubber [ideal for a range of automotive and aerospace applications] and an inert gas jet milling system used for making solid propellant [used in various applications like missiles and rockets]…. In 2021, Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year cooperation agreement… centered on the exchange of heavily-discounted Iranian crude oil for hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese investment in Iran. The deal also proposed banking, military, and security cooperation….”
Iran’s Anti-US Ideology in Action
*A May 6, 2025 brief by The Atlantic Council concludes:”…. The threat of the Iranian regime is not rooted in its nuclear ambitions, but in Tehran’s ideological foundation…underpinning Iran’s nuclear ambitions beyond enrichment levels, centrifuge counts, and sunset clauses…. Iran’s nuclear program is not simply about energy or military deterrence, but a tool for advancing a revolutionary ideology…. At the core of its ideology is an enduring hostility toward the USA and an obsession with the destruction of Israel…. The regime sees both as geopolitical threats and ideological antitheses. The USA, “the Great Satan,” symbolizes liberal democracy, capitalism, religious pluralism, and gender equality. Israel, “the Little Satan,” presents a an intolerable affront: a sovereign Jewish state thriving in the heart of what [Muslim] hardliners see as Islamic land…. Israel is the primary obstacle to their ideological vision of regional domination…. Israel’s very existence undermines [the Ayatollah] belief in a historical and religious destiny that dates back to the Islamic conquests of the seventh century….
“In a shift of policy which can be explained as “taqiyyah” (religious dissimulation), [The Supreme Leader] Khamenei permitted negotiations with the Trump administration…. The concepts of taqiyyah and “khod’eh” (strategic deceit) are deeply embedded in the regime’s political playbook and play a role in this malleability. These tools allow the regime to maintain flexibility in negotiations and justify sudden policy shifts with religious cover….”
*The anti-US apocalyptic Shia vision of the non-nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran is featured prominently in Iran’s K-12 school curriculum, mosque sermons and official media. This vision mandates the toppling of all Sunni regimes, and the subjugation of the “infidel” West and primarily “The Great American Satan.” Hence, the Ayatollah regime’s support – in collaboration with Russia and China – of proxy terror groups and drug traffickers in the Persian Gulf, Horn of Africa, North Africa, West Africa and Latin America, along the US-Mexico border and on US soil.
*Since February 1979, when it toppled the pro-US Shah, the non-nuclear Ayatollah regime has focussed on exporting its anti-US revolutionary Shia vision, emerging as the world’s leading anti-US epicenter of wars, terrorism, drug trafficking and the proliferation of advanced military systems.
*Since the early 1980s, the Ayatollah regime’s chief partner in its penetration of Latin America – the US’ soft underbelly – has been Hezbollah, which has played a key role in drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorist training, especially in the tri-border areas of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and Chile-Bolivia-Peru.
*The non-nuclear Ayatollah regime has fuelled Shia terrorism in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which is the major Saudi oil region, and the home of the largest Shia population of Saudi Arabia (a 30% minority in the province and a 15% minority in Saudi Arabia). Similar acts of Iranian subversion and terrorism have taken place in the pro-US Bahrain (the site of a major US naval base), where a 65% Shia majority is ruled by the Sunnis, and in Kuwait and its 35% Shia minority. In addition, the Ayatollah regime has financed, supplied and trained Yemen’s Houthi terrorists and their insurgency against Yemen’s government and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah terrorists, who have targeted US installations in Jordan and the Gulf area.
The Bottom Line
*The cardinal challenge facing US negotiators is not the details of the nuclear and ballistic aspirations of the Ayatollah regime. The cardinal challenge is to realize that the sophisticated and polished Iranian diplomatic discourse is subordinate to a deep, historic, religious, ideological and strategic commitment to a long-term apocalyptic ideology,which has precluded strategic transformation.
*Moreover, against the backdrop of a 47-year-old self-destructive diplomatic option and reversible economic sanctions, is it reasonable to persist with these two options, which have systematically clashed with reality?
*Furthermore, in view of the 47-year-old rogue walk – fogged by a smooth talk – is it reasonable to expect the Ayatollah regime to abandon its 1,400-year-old fanatic, imperialistic, apocalyptic ideology and be transformed into a good faith negotiator, renouncing the use of taqiyyah, embrace peaceful-coexistence with all Sunni Arab regimes and Israel, desist from any collaboration with terror entities and drug cartels, and forego its long-term ideological goal of bringing The Great American Satan to submission?! Could the non-nuclear Ayatollah regime be amenable to Money Talks, while discarding Ideology Walk?!
This column was published at The Ettinger Report
The views expressed in guest columns are not necessarily the views or positions of the CCNS or its members.
