By Noureddine Omar | 2025-08-14

Russia and China's sustained purchase of sanctioned Iranian oil at discounted prices renders both nations complicit in financing Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its destabilizing proxy networks, experts told Al-Fassel.

Despite years of sanctions, Iran's crude exports remain the regime's primary financial lifeline, enabling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to expand its influence across the Middle East and distort global energy markets.

The IRGC now controls up to 50% of Iran's oil export revenues, rising from 20% three years ago through clandestine tanker fleets and front companies selling primarily to China, Reuters reported December 18.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran's oil trade generated approximately $54 billion in 2022, $53 billion in 2023, and $43 billion in 2024.

China absorbs 80 to 90% of these exports, or more than one million barrels per day, a 2024 EIA report stated, while Russia also purchases illicit shipments.

Syrian economist Mahmoud Mustafa, a lecturer at Damascus University, said this steady revenue funds armed groups including Hizbullah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and militias in Iraq.

Shadow fleet operations

After sanctions tightened, the Iranian regime turned to covert methods such as smuggling and illicit trade through networks established in multiple countries, Mustafa told Al-Fassel.

Central to this effort is the 'shadow fleet' -- a network of tankers that defy international law by conducting ship-to-ship transfers at sea, moving oil from smuggling vessels to legally flagged ships with forged documentation concealing its Iranian origin, he explained.

Journalist Khalil Mohammed said sanctions imposed on Iran for its destabilizing activities make all entities and countries involved in this trade "partners in crimes committed directly by the IRGC or through its proxies."

He called the relationship between Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing an "undeclared alliance" based on military, commercial, and economic partnerships.

He said their cooperation directly supports Iran's nuclear and missile programs, which pose a global security threat.

Mohammed added that by purchasing smuggled Iranian oil at low prices, Russia and China are facilitating the manipulation of global oil prices and bypassing production quotas set by international organizations such as OPEC.

The circumvention creates artificial supply imbalances, benefits Tehran's allies, and destabilizes legitimate market rules.

"This will disrupt the global balance these rules were designed to maintain, requiring urgent legal intervention," Mohammed told Al-Fassel.