Iran Deputy FM: Revealing Iran-China 25-year deal details takes time

TEHRAN, Iran, July 24 Trend: Finalizing the draft of the 25-year Iran-China agreement takes time, so one needs to wait for a while for the release of the agreement details, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Gholamreza Ansari said, Trend reports via IRNA. "We hope the draft for the agreement would be finalized soon so that it could be followed by negotiations," he said. A landmark 25-year deal on economic and political cooperation between Iran and China has caused controversy and fierce debate in the Islamic Republic. The critics argued Tehran had agreed to a "colonial" deal that would allow China to plunder the country's natural resources and oil reserves. "Traveling is of one of the issues with China, currently traveling from Iran to China and vice versa and especially official travels have been halted, so our talks will resume once traveling is allowed," Ansari said. "We should all wait for the negotiations to start and reveal the content of agreements, then the documents would be released," he added. "It's natural that our suggestion is to prepare a more trusted ground for future relations. Agreements with India and Russia would also become drafted, aiming at long term cooperation, while China is at this stage already," said the official.