October 14, 2022
The Islamic Republic has condemned the visit to Taiwan by US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, calling the trip a violation of China’s “territorial integrity.”
The Foreign Ministry statement strictly followed the Chinese official line, a fact that irritated many Iranians who commented on social media that the regime was just kowtowing to Beijing.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Article 2 of the UN Charter obliges all UN members to avoid behavior that would undermine the territorial integrity and political independence of other countries. Actually, Article 2 says nothing of the sort; it deals with other matters.
Kanani also said Iran supports the “One China” policy that views Taiwan and mainland China as one country. Just about the entire world supports the One China policy, including Taiwan and the United States, so Kanani’s statement didn’t say much.
He said Pelosi’s visit violated China’s “territorial integrity,” although China did not complain at all when another US speaker visited Taiwan 25 years ago, and it does not object to the many Americans and other nationalities who visit Taiwan without Chinese visas every day of the year for business and tourism.
The daily Jomhuri Eslami, one of the country’s more hardline newspapers, complained that the foreign minister moved “with incredible speed” to second China’s complaints.
“It is unclear how a policy of impartiality in such disputes would hurt us…. Doesn’t the policy of ‘Neither East Nor West’ necessitate that we take neither side in a dispute between two hegemonic powers?”
The daily said it was “very naive” to try to use China-US spats to benefit the Islamic Republic.
In subsequent days, both President Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian went out of their way to repeat Kanani’s points and nail the firmness of the Islamic Republic’s stance supporting Beijing.
