The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Beijing this week and meet his counterpart Wang Yi, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
The ministry explained that Araqchi and Wang, who met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi last week, will hold talks on Wednesday, as part of Beijing's efforts to mediate the ongoing Iranian-American war since it began with American-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
China is a major economic partner of Iran; It buys a large portion of its oil production, and is also an important diplomatic ally.
The talks between their foreign ministers are scheduled just one week before an expected visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington, where he will meet his counterpart Donald Trump.
The topic of war with Iran will be closely followed during the Washington meeting, along with other thorny issues ranging from trade to competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
This week, Beijing denied reports that Chinese authorities had provided Tehran with satellite images of the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (Azraq Base) in Jordan, where American forces are stationed, before and after an Iranian bombing that targeted it on July 17, resulting in the death of three American soldiers.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaqun said in a regular press conference on Monday: “We strongly deny the baseless suspicions and accusations that are not based on any evidence.”
The report issued by the Wall Street Journal threatens to deepen tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of the expected meeting between Trump and Xi next week.
Trump warned Beijing against selling weapons to Iran, and Washington imposed sanctions in May on three satellite companies based in China for their supposed role in supporting Iranian military operations.
Recent satellite images showed the presence of five large oil spills in the Strait of Hormuz, according to estimates by the Greenpeace organization concerned with environmental protection, according to what was published by the German News Agency, today (Tuesday).
According to the organization, the pollution has reached the Iranian coast near protected areas around Qeshm Island. The island has, among other things, extensive mangrove forests.
An oil spill also appeared on the southern Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the organization. The rocky coast there is an important stopping area for migratory birds.
Other oil spills in the area may have been caused by the “Resco” oil tanker. “This may indicate that the ship sank and that oil is still leaking from it,” Greenpeace wrote, referring only to a possible scenario.
The US military had announced that it had attacked the “Resco” tanker and other oil tankers linked to Iran. Iran has also repeatedly attacked ships in the region. It is often difficult to link pollution to specific attacks on ships in the area, also due to limited transmitter data.
According to Greenpeace, another oil slick is also spreading off the southern coast of Oman. The oil tanker "Karoline Bezenzhi", which is classified as part of the Russian so-called "shadow fleet" and is subject to sanctions from the European Union, ran aground there.
“On September 11, the visible area (of the oil spill) was estimated at about 400 square kilometers, and on September 12, it was estimated at about 600 square kilometers,” environmental activists wrote, citing a preliminary estimate. It is not yet clear why the spot expanded, and among the possibilities is that the ship was exposed to additional damage, in addition to changes in weather and sea conditions.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump confirmed that Iran is “urgently” seeking to reach a “quick” agreement to stop the war, indicating his “openness” to the matter.
The US President wrote on his platform, “Truth Social,” that “the failed Iranian nation wants to reach an agreement quickly and urgently.” “I will decide whether the United States chooses to engage in that or not, which is something we are open to.” Trump also said that Iran wants to reach an agreement. The US President had stressed that he would not accept a settlement with Tehran, which he described as “inappropriate,” reiterating his assertion that Tehran would not obtain a nuclear weapon. He explained that Iran is “continuously communicating” in an effort to hold talks.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is strengthening its efforts to help end the conflict; The Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, said that Islamabad seeks to reach a peaceful solution through dialogue and international mechanisms supported by the United Nations. Ahmed announced that his country is working to achieve a ceasefire, reduce tensions, and return the parties to the negotiating table.
For his part, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke yesterday about Iran's failure to fulfill its nuclear obligations. During a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Wright criticized Tehran's refusal to allow UN inspectors access to Iranian nuclear sites damaged by the war. He said that Iran had “plenty of time to address its gross neglect of its obligations, but that time has run out.”
