Weeks after his country was battered by waves of Israeli strikes and the US bombed three of its prized nuclear facilities, Iran’s foreign minister came to a gathering of regional diplomats in China this week with a simple ask.

"Strengthening air defense capabilities is clearly an urgent priority for Iran at the moment," expert Hongda Fan told Newsweek.

Iran's sale of drones and ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and the selling of oil at significantly reduced prices to China did little to benefit Tehran during the critical days of Israeli and US attacks.

The flow of goods in Manzhouli, China’s main border crossing with Russia, underscores increasingly close ties between the two countries, complicating China’s relationship with Europe.

Iran, Russia, and China have different ideologies, political regimes, and strategic aims. Iran’s relations with its two larger partners are wildly asymmetric. [Read: The invisible city of Tehran]

Iran and Israel came to blows, and Beijing mostly ducked. China isn’t ready to be the world’s next superpower: That’s one thing the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran in June made abundantly clear.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to ...

What happens next in US-Iran relations will be ... U.S. sanctions continued in the Biden administration as Iran pursued deeper ties with Russia, China and ... Iran has been careful in its ...

Iran's sale of drones and ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and the selling of oil at significantly reduced prices to China did little to benefit Tehran during the critical ...