China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would play a “greater role” in ending hostilities in the Middle East during talks with his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday, a week before US President Donald Trump is due to meet Xi Jinping.
China is a key customer for Iranian oil, defying sanctions imposed by the United States, and is directly affected by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz bordered by Iran.
Beijing has quietly engaged in efforts to resolve the weekslong crisis and its diplomacy is credited with playing an important role in the fragile ceasefire agreed between Washington and Tehran.
China “will work harder to ease tensions and end the fighting, continue to support the launch of peace talks, and play a greater role in restoring peace and tranquility to the Middle East”, Wang told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi in Beijing.
“China considers that a complete cessation of fighting must be achieved without delay, that it is even more unacceptable to restart hostilities, and that continuing to negotiate remains essential,” Wang said, according to a statement from his ministry after the talks.
Manufacturing giant China has been comparatively sheltered from fuel shortages thanks to oil reserves and renewable energy, but costs of oil-derived materials like plastic and fabric have risen significantly.
More than half of the crude imported by sea to China comes from the Middle East and mainly transits through the Hormuz strait, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler.
Analysts have warned the war’s impact on China will be felt for months.
During Wednesday’s talks Wang said China hopes “the parties concerned will respond as quickly as possible to the urgent call of the international community” for a resumption of normal and safe maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Wang-Araghchi talks came as Trump said the US would pause escorting commercial ships through the Hormuz Strait — which drew Iranian attacks — barely a day after it began doing so.
Trump cited a desire to reach a peace deal with Iran.
Washington demands tight controls on Tehran’s nuclear programme, which Iran has refused to agree to and has led to talks crumbling.
“On the nuclear issue, China welcomes Iran’s commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, while considering that Iran has the legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Wang said.
The US leader is expected to meet Chinese President Xi in Beijing on a visit the White House said will take place May 14-15.
Beijing has not confirmed those dates.
A foreign ministry spokesman again refused to share details when asked about Trump’s visit at a regular news conference on Wednesday.
Trump would join rulers from the Gulf, Europe and Southeast Asia that have recently landed face time with Xi, who has sought to position China as a stable partner in the face of the US- and Israeli-led conflict.
Trump’s visit would also come more than a year after his sweeping global tariffs wreaked havoc on the supply chain, causing chaos in China’s manufacturing sector.
TEHRAN, June 16 — Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said today that ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, was “the most important” issue in the peace deal with the United States announced the day before.
“The important point I want to emphasise here is that in our view, there are two parties to this memorandum—one side is America and Israel, and the other side is Iran and Hezbollah,” said Araghchi during a briefing with foreign diplomats broadcast on state television.
“This is perhaps the most important issue in the memorandum—the declaration of an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” he said, adding that “ending the war in Lebanon is an inseparable part of the complete end of the war”.
His remarks came one day after Tehran and Washington announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict, which broke out on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and engulfed the Middle East.
Lebanon was pulled into the war in early March when Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, prompting Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
Araghchi said an end to the war would not be complete “without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories it occupied in this war”.
“Any military attack by the Zionist regime on Lebanon from now on and the continued occupation of Lebanese territories from now on will be considered a violation of the memorandum of understanding in our view,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country’s forces will remain in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza “as long as necessary”.
Following the deal announcement yesterday Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli forces trying to advance in southern Lebanon.
The deal is expected to be signed on Friday in Switzerland. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said his country’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will attend the signing with an Iranian delegation, according to state television.
The US delegation will be headed by Vice President JD Vance, he added.
“It is also not yet clear how the signing will take place, including whether it will be conducted electronically or not,” he said.
Araghchi said the signing “will take place soon” and that talks with the United States on a final agreement covering Iran’s nuclear programme will begin after the signing.
“Likely on Friday, at a location to be determined... a new round of negotiations between Iran and the United States to reach a final agreement will begin,” Araghchi said.
“In the final agreement, decisions will be made on the nuclear issues and the lifting of sanctions,” he added. — AFP
BEIRUT, June 17 — Israeli forces on Wednesday carried out airstrikes on several areas in south Lebanon, state media reported, despite a peace deal in the Middle East war that includes Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israeli warplanes launched raids targeting the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area and the eastern outskirts of neighbouring town Kfar Tebnit.
The Israelis also launched a drone strike on the town of Ansariyeh in the Zahrani area, NNA reported.
While violence has declined in Lebanon since a US-Iran agreement to end the Middle East war was announced on Monday, Israeli strikes on the south have still killed at least five people since the deal, according to NNA.
The reduction in violence has allowed some south Lebanon residents to return and inspect their towns and villages, but the Lebanese army has urged locals to delay their return, citing “the risk of Israeli violations and attacks”.
The Iran-backed group Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in early March by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel responded with a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that an end to the conflict would be incomplete “without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories it occupied in this war”.
“Any military attack by the Zionist regime on Lebanon from now on and the continued occupation of Lebanese territories from now on will be considered a violation of the memorandum of understanding in our view,” he said.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that his country’s forces would remain in Lebanon “for as long as necessary”.
Hezbollah has so far not issued any statements since Tuesday claiming attacks on Israeli targets in south Lebanon.
The group’s leader Naim Qassem is due to make a televised address on Wednesday.
He expressed “profound gratitude” on Tuesday for Iran’s efforts “to compel the Israeli entity to an immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts including in Lebanon”.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Tuesday raised the death toll in Israeli attacks since the war broke out to 3,826, as rescuers pull more bodies from the rubble. — AFP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday against any “destabilizing” actions on Taiwan before a trip to China by President Donald Trump and called on Beijing also to raise pressure on Iran.
Trump is scheduled to pay the first visit of his second term to China next week, a trip he delayed after he led the United States in a joint attack alongside Israel against Iran.
Rubio, addressing reporters at the White House, said he was sure that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would discuss Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island claimed by Beijing.
“I think both countries understand that it is in neither one of our interests to see anything destabiliz(ing) happen in that part of the world,” Rubio told reporters.
“We don’t need any destabilizing events to occur with regards to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo-Pacific, and I think that’s to the mutual benefit of both the United States and the Chinese,” Rubio said.
China has ramped up its military presence around Taiwan in recent years and staged large-scale military drills.
While the United States has an ambiguous policy on whether it would defend Taiwan, its military looks increasingly stretched as resources shift from Asia to the Iran war.
Rubio, who has never visited China, was an outspoken critic of Beijing’s human rights record while a senator, championing legislation that brought sanctions over Beijing’s alleged use of forced labor from the Uyghur minority.
The Trump administration has largely downplayed human rights, preferring to focus on promoting what it sees as core US interests such as trade.
Asked if Trump would raise human rights, Rubio said, “I think we’ve proven in some cases it’s most effective to raise them in the appropriate setting. But we always raise those issues.”
Rubio also called for China to put pressure on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was leaving Tuesday for Beijing.
Iran has exerted control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil once transited, in retaliation for being attacked by the United States and Israel.
China has been by far the largest buyer of Iranian oil, defying sanctions unilaterally imposed by Trump since his first term against any country that is Tehran’s customer.
“I hope the Chinese tell him (Araghchi) what he needs to be told, and that is that what you were doing in the straits is causing you to be globally isolated,” Rubio said.
“You’re the bad guy in this,” he said. “You guys should not be blowing up ships.”
The United States has also been blowing up ships. The US military said Monday it had destroyed six small Iranian boats, accusing them of threatening shipping.
During the war, a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka, killing 104 sailors, with US forces leaving them to drown.
Login