The top Chinese diplomat spoke to the Iranian Foreign Minister on Tuesday, following Iran’s first ever direct attack on Israel.
China’s Foreign Minister held phone discussions with his Iranian counterpart, Beijing state media said on Tuesday, reporting that Iran said that it was “willing to exercise restraint” after its first-ever attack on Israel’s territory.
Israel vowed to respond to the unprecedented Iranian missile and drone strikes over the weekend, which have prompted appeals for de-escalation by world leaders fearing a wider conflict.
China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
The United States has repeatedly made public appeals for China to use its influence over Tehran to manage tensions in the region.
During the call, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian briefed Wang Yi on the April 1 attack on a consular annex of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus, which Tehran says prompted its aerial assault, Beijing’s state news agency Xinhua said.
Amir-Abdollahian told Wang that the United Nations Security Council “did not make a necessary response to this attack” and that “Iran has the right to self-defense in response to the violation of its sovereignty,” according to a readout.
Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran was “willing to exercise restraint” and had no intention of further escalating tensions.
Wang said that China “strongly condemns and firmly opposes the attack” on the Iranian consular annex, Xinhua reported, and regards it as a “serious violation of international law and unacceptable.”
The readout said that China noted Iran’s statement that, in response, it had taken limited action in “self-defense.”
“China appreciates Iran’s stress on not targeting regional and neighboring countries as well as its reiteration on continuously pursuing a good-neighborly and friendly policy,” Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.
‘Spillover Effect’
The foreign ministers discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict in the call, with Wang calling the current situation a “spillover effect of the escalating conflict in Gaza,” according to Xinhua.
China, historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza since the war began.
“China is willing to maintain communication with the Iranian side and jointly push for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue,” Wang said according to Xinhua.
Wang also held talks with his Saudi counterpart on Monday, the news agency said.
The two foreign ministers agreed to work together to avoid further escalation in the Middle East, it said.
With AFP
