Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi to visit Beijing for talks with Wang Yi
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit Beijing, China, on September 16, where he will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the planned meeting, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
Talks in Beijing
Araghchi and Wang Yi already met last week on the sidelines of the BRICS conference in Delhi. The new talks will take place amid Beijing's attempts to mediate in the war between Iran and the United States, which has been ongoing for several months.
China is one of Iran's leading economic partners: it buys a significant share of Iranian oil and supports Tehran diplomatically.
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Context of China-US relations
The meeting of the foreign ministers will take place about a week before the expected visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. The war in Iran is expected to be one of the topics of that meeting, along with trade and competition in artificial intelligence.
Beijing this week denied a Wall Street Journal report that Chinese entities had provided Tehran with satellite images of a U.S. military base in Jordan before and after an Iranian strike that killed three U.S. service members. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing opposes unfounded suspicions and accusations without evidence.
According to the publication, these reports could heighten tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of talks between Trump and Xi Jinping. Trump warned China against selling weapons to Iran, while the United States imposed sanctions in May on three Chinese satellite companies for assisting Iranian military operations.
