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Chinese People's Liberation Army honour guard members march during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on November 12, 2025, in Beijing, China. (Getty Images)
Middle East
Middle East
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An oil rig in the Iranian area of the Persian Gulf. (Stock Image)
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Iranian and Russian navies attend a joint military exercise in the Arabian Sea on February 17, 2021. (Iranian Army/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ebrahim Raisi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on February 14, 2023. (Yan Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch Complex 39A on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station on May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Bill Ingalls via DVIDS)
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin arrives at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on March 21, 2023. (Contributor via Getty Images)
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An Iranian flag waves next to an Emad surface-to-surface missile in downtown Tehran on April 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl via Getty Images)
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Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, Saudi delegation, and Iranian delegation in Beijing, China, on March 10, 2023. (Luo Xiaoguang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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(Screenshot via YouTube)
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View from Mount Carmel of Haifa shipping port and city in northern Israel on October 12, 2022. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
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Women protest in solidarity with the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in Melbourne, Australia, on March 11, 2023. (Matt Hrkac via Flickr)
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A man in Tehran holds a local newspaper reporting on the China-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore ties signed in Beijing, on March 11, 2023. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
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A Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone allegedly shot down in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in September 2022. (@UAWeapons via Twitter)
Experts
James Barnett
Research Fellow
Michael Doran
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East
