Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged his Iranian counterpart to “initiate peace talks as soon as possible” during a Tuesday call that Beijing said was held at the request of Tehran.
US President Donald Trump has said Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others are leading negotiations with Iran. An Iranian source told CNN Tuesday that Tehran is willing to listen to “sustainable” proposals to end the war.
During his call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, China’s Wang said negotiation was “in the interests of the Iranian nation and its people and also echoes the general wish of the international community.”
“All parties” should “seize every opportunity and window for peace and to launch peace talks as soon as possible,” Wang said, according to a readout released by China’s Foreign Ministry.
China has for weeks called for an end to the fighting and decried the US and Israeli attack on Iran. It’s also urged “all parties” to back a ceasefire and condemned “all indiscriminate attacks on civilians and nonmilitary targets,” while stopping short of explicitly condemning Iran’s military retaliation.
Wang’s language may also suggest China’s growing frustration with the heightened economic costs of the conflict, which have shocked global fuel markets and upended shipping and travel.
China has long been a key economic and diplomatic partner for Tehran, but the Iranian government’s tactics during the conflict – closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking Gulf countries – have complicated Beijing’s diplomacy, while also raising the economic stakes for the world’s largest importer of oil.
Araghchi told Wang that Iran is “committed to achieving a comprehensive ceasefire rather than merely a temporary truce,” according to the Chinese side.
An Iranian statement on the call said Araghchi had stressed Iran’s “firm determination to continue defending its national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and would continue to do so until “the aggressors are made to regret their actions.”
Source: CNN
- Agencies
