Regional
Iran foreign minister meets Chinese counterpart for first time since Iran war started
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged China to intensify its diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met China’s top diplomat in Beijing on Wednesday, underscoring close ties between the two countries shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to meet with Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.
Araqchi’s visit, announced by state news agency Xinhua, is his first trip to China since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran set off the most severe global oil supply shock in history and undermined the energy security of China, the world’s top crude importer.
Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged China to intensify its diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.
Bessent said Trump and Xi would exchange views on Iran in person during their May 14 to 15 talks in Beijing. But he emphasized the two will seek to keep the steady U.S.-China relationship on track following a trade truce in October.
He urged China to “join us in this international operation” to open the strait, but did not specify what actions Beijing should take. He added that China and Russia should stop blocking initiatives at the United Nations, including a resolution encouraging steps to protect commercial shipping in the strait.
Earlier this week, the U.S. and Iran launched new attacks in the Gulf as they wrestled for control over the strait with duelling maritime blockades, threatening what was already a fragile truce.
Trump later said the U.S. Navy would help ships pass through the strait. But that operation was paused after Trump on Tuesday said there had been “great progress” made toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran.
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, read the report.
The Iranian foreign minister on Monday said the attacks, taking place after he said Tehran was looking into Trump’s request for negotiations, showed there was no military solution to the crisis.
China has engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity and refrained from forceful criticism of the U.S.’ conduct of the war so that the summit, already postponed once by the conflict, can go smoothly, analysts have told Reuters.
China has repeatedly urged the U.S. and Iran to maintain the ceasefire and lift the restrictions in the strait. Trump has also credited Beijing with helping to get Iran to attend last month’s peace talks in Pakistan.
Last week, China escalated its opposition to U.S. sanctions against Chinese oil refineries over purchases of Iranian crude. Its Ministry of Commerce ordered companies not to comply with U.S. sanctions against five independent refiners, including the recently designated Hengli Petrochemical, invoking for the first time a law that allows Beijing to retaliate against entities enforcing sanctions that it deems unlawful, Reuters reported.
China buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, data for 2025 from analytics firm Kpler showed. Iranian oil has had limited buyers due to U.S. sanctions that are aimed at cutting off funding to Tehran’s nuclear programme.