“Two parallel mechanisms” are underway as President Trump visits China and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in India at a BRICS meeting, said analyst Abas Aslani.

“On the one side, Trump is trying to pressure and convince China in order to stop its … diplomatic, economic, as well as military cooperation with Iran,” the senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies told Al Jazeera, The Caspian Post reports.

Washington had hoped to use “the victory in a war with Iran” as leverage with Beijing, Aslani argued, but “now it is vice versa”.

“They are asking for help from China to pressure Iran,” he said, noting there are “serious questions on whether China will cooperate”.

“At the end of the day, if the US has control over the Persian Gulf and Iran’s energy facilities and the region that can be used as leverage against China in the longer run… That undermines the cooperation between the two sides.”

From Tehran’s perspective, recent meetings in China, as well as with Russia, India, and other countries within the BRICS framework, are important from an “economic” point of view, Aslani noted.

“Iran is trying to use different alternatives, like its land borders with 15 other countries, as well as … cooperation with other global powers and countries to somehow compensate for the ongoing situation.”