TEHRAN – The Chinese ambassador to Iran says U.S. pressure will have no bearing on Tehran-Beijing cooperation.

Cong Peiwu told reporters that his country dismisses and turns a blind eye to Washington’s unreasonable pressure, and will show its opposition in practice. “The United States’ unilateral sanctions on Iran will not disrupt our relations, and we will continue our interactions,” he explained.

This comes as the presidents of Iran and China have pledged to fully implement a 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership document, which focuses on closer cooperation between the two sides in all areas.

During a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in early October, President Masoud Pezeshkian also expressed Tehran’s backing for Xi’s global governance initiative and said Iran was ready to work with Beijing under all circumstances to raise relations to their “maximum level.”

Pezeshkian said China could count on Iran as a “strong and determined” partner and expressed interest in joint projects, including high-speed railways and highways. He also criticized the United States for pursuing unilateral policies and interfering in other countries.

Xi said China was committed to advancing relations with Iran with a “future-oriented outlook” and called for faster implementation of bilateral agreements, including those discussed at their previous meeting in Kazan.

The Chinese leader described Iran as a “strategic partner” and urged closer coordination within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to counter unilateralism. After Pezeshkian’s return, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described his trip to China as significant.

Beijing backs Tehran in its nuclear dispute with the West. Over a month ago, Iran, China and Russia, in a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, announced that a move by Britain, France and Germany to re-impose pre-JCPOA UN sanctions against Iran lacked any legal foundation.

The UK, France, and Germany triggered the so-called snapback mechanism on August 28, setting in motion a process to restore all UN sanctions on Iran.

These three European countries, which are U.S. allies, along with the United States expected that the sanctions could curb the flow of oil from Iran to major customers like China.

Nevertheless, experts and authorities in Iran have consistently downplayed concerns raised about the country’s oil exports, arguing that U.S. pressure would not affect Iran’s oil trade or its access to international markets.

Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said in early October that UN sanctions would not add any new pressure on the country’s oil exports as he explained that the country had overcome some of the harshest American sanctions targeting its oil industry in recent years.

This comes as Iran has set a new record in its oil exports despite the ongoing U.S. pressure and UN sanctions, according to the latest data from a leading energy analytics firm.

The Tankers Trackers said in a post on its X account on November 9, 2025 that Iran had exported an average of 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil over the past four weeks. “These are numbers we haven't seen since the early half of 2018,” the post said.

Iran’s oil exports came under sweeping U.S. sanctions in May 2018, when Washington withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal

The sanctions affected Iranian oil shipments when they were tightened in May 2019, but they gradually became ineffective as Iran managed to restore and expand its exports, particularly to private buyers in China.

The Tanker Trackers had already reported a seven-year record in Iran’s oil exports in September when shipments reached nearly 2 million bpd.

That report came just before the United Nations re-imposed six sanction resolutions on Iran that had been lifted in 2015 when the country signed the JCPOA with world powers.

Apart from the nuclear issue and oil exports, Iran is also likely to turn to China to mend shortcomings noted during the 12-day U.S.-Israeli aggression in June. Air defense systems and fighter jets are among the equipment Iranians may seek to purchase from the Chinese.