A recently-published Reuters report says that top Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, citing four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter.
The discussions about the attacks and trade between China and Iran took place at several recent meetings in Beijing and Tehran, the Iranian sources said, “declining to provide details about when they took place or who attended,” the report said.
Per the report:
“Basically, China says: ‘If our interests are harmed in any way, it will impact our business with Tehran. So tell the Houthis to show restraint’,” said one Iranian official briefed on the talks, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The involvement of Chinas’s pressure on Iran and its support for the Houthi attacks on defenseless trade ships in the Red Sea puts China in rare alignment with the United States, the UK and others on the situation around Yemen.
The Chinese officials, however, did not make any specific comments or threats about how Beijing’s trading relationship with Iran could be affected if its interests were damaged by Houthi attacks, the four Iranian sources said.
