خاطره حمیدی

The paper focuses on the rivalry between China and the United States in the Middle East and examines how China has acted in the face of US sanctions against Iran, despite the threat of sanctions for countries that violate them. Iran is facing sanctions whose purpose is economic collapse and pressure on this country to submit to the demands of the United States. Tensions between the United States and Iran have been steadily rising since the country withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. However, in addition to internal challenges for Iran, sanctions are also an obstacle for foreign relations. Due to the maximum pressure policy of the United States with the aim of economic isolation of Iran, trade is facing difficulties. Iran must maintain its most important trading partners to ensure a degree of economic stability. While China is Iran's biggest trading partner, it has to deal with these conditions. In various sectors, sanctions are obstacles in the way of China-Iran relations, such as investment, crude oil trade or the implementation of projects in Iran. These are the challenges that both countries must overcome to maintain exchanges. Considering that sanctions are the main factor preventing the continuation of relations between these two countries, this research asks: Why does China want to maintain close relations with Iran despite US sanctions? And what effects does China's rise to power have on the relations of this emerging power with America in the Middle East region?

Spiritual/religious perfectionism is one of the determinants of couple adjustment. Spiritual health, that has a strong relationship with spiritual/religious perfectionism, also has a determinant role in couple adjustment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the corelation of spiritual/religious perfectionism spiritual health with levels of couple adjustment. Three hundred and seven married individuals (148 men, 159 women) from a community sample living in Tehran participated in this study. All participants were asked to complete Spiritual/Religious Perfectionism Scale (SRPS), Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), and Golombok Rust Inventory of Marital State (GRIMS). Spiritual/religious perfectionism revealed a significant positive correlation with measures of couple adjustment. Spiritual health also revealed a significant positive correlation with couple adjustment. It can be concluded that both spiritual/religious perfectionism and spiritual health can be considered as determinants of couple adjustment. The findings also may support a new dimension of perfectionism, i.e. spiritual/religious perfectionism, separate from nonspiritual/nonreligious perfectionism. Teaching and encouraging spiritual/religious perfectionism within the educational systems from childhood in  family and school can help implications of this kind of perfectionism to be achieved.