China secretly sent transport planes to Iran?
China is said to have secretly sent transport planes to support Iran in recent days.
The British Telegraph reported that a day after Israel attacked Iran on June 13, a transport plane took off from China. The next day, a second plane departed from a coastal city. Then on June 16, another flight departed, this time from Shanghai. Three flights in three days.
Data shows that on each flight, the plane flew west across northern China, across Kazakhstan, then south into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — and then disappeared from radar as it approached Iran.
The final destination of the flight plan was Luxembourg, but the plane apparently never approached European skies, the Telegraph pointed out.
Concerns have arisen in response to what may have been a message sent from China in the direction of Iran as Tehran's war with Israel rages on.
According to the Telegraph, aviation experts have noted that the type of aircraft used was a Boeing 747 cargo plane, which is often used to transport military equipment and weapons, and is chartered to fly under government contract orders.
“These goods cannot but attract interest, because it is possible that China is doing this to help Iran,” said Andrea Ghiselli, a lecturer at the University of Exeter who specializes in China’s relations with the Middle East and North Africa.
China and Iran are strategic partners. The bond between the two is their opposition to the US-led world order and their support for a new “multipolar” order. Iran is also one of China’s main energy suppliers, sending 2 million barrels of oil a day.
“The collapse of the current regime would be a significant blow and would create a lot of instability in the Middle East, ultimately undermining China’s economic and energy interests,” Ghiselli said. “Moreover, Iran is probably also looking to China for help.”
But at this sensitive time, experts say Beijing may be treading cautiously, as direct involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict could trigger any changes China is making to its efforts to stabilize its relationship with the United States, Israel’s strongest ally.
Tuvia Gering, a China and Middle East expert at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, said that while "the likelihood of China sending defense materials to Tehran remains low," the possibility "should not be taken lightly and must be closely monitored."