03a China

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the June memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States when he met with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing on Wednesday.

“We urge all parties to take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at an early date,” said Wang, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Wang urged Iran and the U.S. to “engage in substantive consultations on issues of mutual concern,” and advised both sides to “exercise restraint.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted Wang’s remarks were consistent with China’s long-standing position on the Strait of Hormuz conflict — with a dash of additional urgency because Iran’s terrorist proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, are now attacking Saudi Arabia and threatening shipping in the Red Sea.

Araghchi claimed Iran still sees the MOU as valid — even though Iran has repeatedly violated it by launching terrorist attacks at civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran is not interested in continuing the conflict, hopes to return to a diplomatic path toward a settlement and at the same time intends to firmly defend its rights and interests. The Iranian side believes that the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran remains in force,” he said, according to Chinese state media.

BEIJING: China encourages Iran and the US to remain rational, exercise restraint, return to the interim peace deal they signed in June and “engage in substantive consultations”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday (Sep 16).

“We urge all parties to take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at an early date” to safeguard the stability of international energy transport and supply chains, Wang said, according to China’s foreign ministry, adding that China “does not want to see regional tensions to spill over further into Yemen and the Red Sea”.

Tehran and Washington should “rebuild the negotiation mechanism based on the consensus reached so far”, Wang told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is on a one-day visit to Beijing.

“Iran, while fully prepared to powerfully defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity and safeguard its security … against aggressors, welcomes diplomatic solutions that ensure the rights of the Iranian nation,” Araghchi said, according to Iranian state media.

The talks between the two diplomats came a week ahead of an expected meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Washington.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said Trump and Xi would continue discussions on Iran and China’s financial links to Tehran, which Washington has been seeking to shut out of western financial systems.

President Donald Trump’s economic D-Day is already hurting the Iranian regime’s revenues, but unilateral U.S. sanctions can only do so much. If the president wants Iran to fold, he’ll have to play a much better card — cutting it off from China by enforcing tough U.N. embargoes.

Despite its name, Trump’s Operation Economic Outcast does not block Beijing’s vital support for the regime in Tehran. In fact, at a recent summit, China and Iran jointly condemned and vowed to defy the new U.S. strategy.