(A belated) thanks for the heads-up, Chris. New and frightening 'coalitions' appear to be forming all the time, making the concept of the fictional 'Greater Islamic Republic' (and its potential non-Islamic cohorts in aggression) even more plausible, and more frightening, than it was when it was simply a brainchild written on paper in black-and-white. The 'timing' of this economic 'memorandum of understanding' is pretty irrelevant. The (so-called) People's Republic of China, for its part, is never averse to forming any alliance which will promote its insidious ideological agenda -- rubbing economic elbows with the accomplices of known terrorists notwithstanding.
An aside: My Dad was reading the most recent chapter of 'Breath of Fire' the morning of the terrorist attacks, and when the news (and pictures) of the terrorism in New York and DC began to be reported, he said it was almost surreal. He had some difficulty divorcing the story from the 'real life' events that were unfolding before him (said he felt almost as if the news reports he was hearing were a new portion of the ongoing saga). Sometimes truth can be more horrifying than fiction....
Stay well....