Chinese Foreign Minister: Dialogue and negotiation are the way to resolve Middle East conflicts

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, during his meeting in Beijing with Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, that all parties to the conflict in the Middle East should focus on political solutions instead of resorting to weapons again.

The official Chinese Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as telling Bagheri Kani that dialogue and negotiation are the way to resolve conflicts in the Middle East.

Wang added that China supports Iran in protecting its sovereignty and security.

The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan (Monday) expressed their concern over reports indicating that Washington has plans to deport large numbers of Afghan migrants to Pakistan, with the aim of eventually returning them to their home country.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement: “The Emirate of Afghanistan expresses its deep concern over reports that the United States intends to deport some Afghan refugees who have not yet been able to obtain legal residency documents to Pakistan,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported.

The administration of US President Donald Trump intends to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants to Afghanistan via Pakistan, US media reported (Friday), in a move that rights groups say could put their lives in danger.

Last year, Trump imposed a ban on the entry of citizens of a number of countries, including Afghanistan, as part of a broad campaign to tighten immigration policies, and sought to end the status of protection from deportation granted to Afghans, including individuals who obtained special immigration visas after the Taliban authorities took power in August 2021.

More than 150 Afghan immigrants are expected to be deported as part of these latest steps, according to the New York Times, citing three unnamed American officials, adding that the first flight may leave early Monday.

Among those expected to be deported are Afghan relatives who helped the US army in Afghanistan before the fall of Kabul, according to the Afghan Evac group, which seeks to help former Afghan allies of the United States.

Since the United States cannot arrange direct deportations to Afghanistan, officials told the newspaper that Pakistan would supervise their deportation.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani government ordered law enforcement agencies across the country to arrest Afghan citizens who do not hold visas, as part of a policy to return them to their country that has been ongoing for years and has led to the return of millions of Afghans who fled their homes after the Taliban returned to power.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tense since the Taliban authorities took power in 2021, and they worsened after bloody border clashes last October that led to an almost complete closure of the border.