Radio Farda: A high-level delegation of Iranian officials visited China this week ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s two-day trip, which starts on Thursday, February 21.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif led a delegation that included parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and the ministers of finance and petroleum, as well as the CEO of Iran's central bank.

That is almost everybody, except the president, the Supreme Leader and the military. The presence of the oil minister and the chief of the central bank is a sign that trade, particularly oil sales to China and repatriation of the money was at the top of the agenda for Iran.

On Wednesday, the delegation met with China’s President Xi Jinping, who told the speaker of Iran’s parliament about China’s unwavering desire to develop close ties with Iran.

China is one of Iran’s important oil buyers and is currently enjoying a waiver from U.S. sanction until May to continue buying from Iran, but if Washington reduces or phases out exemptions it offered eight countries, revenues for Iran will hit bottom, threatening whatever economic viability the country has.

U.S. gave a 6-month wavier in November to China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, Greece, but only China and India continued Iranian oil intake in a restricted amount. Lately, it was reported that Japan intends to resume limited purchases.

In January 2018, China imported 749,000 barrels of oil from Iran, but as the United States pulled out of the nuclear agreement with Iran in May and reimposed oil sanctions in October, Chinese imports hit a low of 247,000 barrels in November, which slightly recovered in November.

The 50-60 percent reduction in Chinese oil imports is in line with the overall drop in Iranian oil exports during the May-December period last year. Iran oil exports have basically halved after the announcement of the U.S. decision to reimpose sanctions >>>