Iran’s hidden oil network in China: Leaked letter details Tehran’s strategy

Iran has secured control of oil terminals and storage facilities at several locations in China to help transport and sell its sanctioned crude despite US restrictions, according to a confidential letter obtained by Iran International and accounts from sources in Iran's Oil Ministry.The arrangement involves Iranian-controlled port facilities, long-term leases and oil storage tanks that allow sanctioned tankers to unload crude directly in China, reducing the need to transfer cargoes between vessels or rely on conventional shipping routes.In a confidential letter written by Hamid Bovard, former head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and current acting oil minister, in response to correspondence from Ali Shamkhani, a former secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and political adviser to then-supreme leader Ali Khamenei.In his letter, Bovard criticised the oil-trading policies of former president Ebrahim Raisi and described an alternative arrangement developed under President Masoud Pezeshkian, involving what he characterised as covert cooperation from…