China’s Wang Yi urges political solutions over arms in Beijing meeting with Iranian official as Gulf tensions persist
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Iranian national security official Ali Bagheri Kani in Beijing on Monday that all parties in the Middle East conflict should focus on political solutions rather than resorting to arms again, and said China supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and security.
China has used a minister-level meeting in Beijing to press its case for a political end to the Middle East conflict, telling an Iranian national security official that dialogue, not renewed fighting, is the way to resolve the region’s disputes. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the point on Monday in a meeting with Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, as reported by Reuters.
Wang’s message was framed in deliberately broad terms. He said that all parties in the Middle East conflict should focus on political solutions rather than resorting to arms again, and that dialogue and negotiation are the way to resolve Middle East conflicts. He added that China supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and security — a formulation that signals sympathy for Tehran’s position without committing Beijing to any military role in the confrontation between Iran and the United States and Israel.
The meeting is distinct from a separate Chinese diplomatic step reported earlier on Monday: the planned November visits to Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia by China’s special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun. The envoy’s trips are working-level missions to the region; Wang’s meeting was a minister-level statement of principle in Beijing, aimed at the wider audience of governments watching the Qatar-mediated talks over the Strait of Hormuz. Together, the two tracks show Beijing operating at both levels at once — public advocacy for diplomacy and quiet shuttle work behind it.
China’s position on the other side of the Gulf conflict was also stated on Monday, and it was a condemnation rather than a call for restraint in general terms. Beijing said it condemned recent attacks by the Houthis on Saudi airports and energy infrastructure, expressing serious concern about the conflict between Riyadh and the Yemeni group intensifying. The statement followed a Houthi strike that hit Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 11, a day after another deadly attack claimed by the Iran-backed group forced a suspension of operations there.
That condemnation matters because it shows China trying to hold a balance that is becoming harder to maintain. On one hand, Beijing has deepened its relationship with Tehran and has now publicly backed Iran’s sovereignty and security. On the other, it has extensive economic interests in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf, and it depends on the region’s energy exports. Condemning attacks on Saudi civilian and energy targets while urging dialogue with Iran is Beijing’s attempt to keep both relationships workable at the same time.
The Beijing meeting also came on the same day as a separate high-level encounter in the Chinese capital. Earlier on Monday, President Xi Jinping told Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said that the Middle East and Gulf region should not become a battleground for great-power rivalry, and the two sides issued a joint statement in which Muscat said it supports the Chinese peace proposals for the Middle East. Oman, which has long played a quiet mediating role in the Gulf, is one of the countries China’s envoy is due to visit this month, and the Xi-Haitham meeting gave that mission a public endorsement.
The wider diplomatic context is the Qatar-mediated effort to end the eight-month-old war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other. Iranian negotiators have left Doha after three days of talks, with a draft proposal for a deal now being circulated for feedback and a follow-up meeting possible. The basis of the talks, according to Iran’s foreign ministry, is a seven-step plan drawn up in September to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the US naval blockade on Iran, with Tehran now suggesting that proposal could be implemented on a faster timeline under a deal.
That context explains the urgency in Wang’s language, and also its limits. The talks are taking place days before the United States midterm elections on Tuesday, and President Donald Trump has said he would not launch new attacks on Iran before the vote, while not ruling out further military action afterwards. China’s call for political solutions is therefore aimed at a narrow window: the days in which a draft deal might be agreed before electoral politics in Washington changes the calculations on all sides.
What China can actually deliver in that window is a separate question. Beijing is not a mediator in the Doha talks — that role belongs to Qatar — and it is not a party to the draft proposal being circulated. Its influence runs through its relationships with Tehran, Riyadh and Muscat, and through its position as the largest buyer of Gulf energy. A public statement from Wang, backed by an envoy’s visits, can reinforce the case for a deal, but it cannot by itself close the gaps between the parties on the Strait of Hormuz, the naval blockade and the terms of any ceasefire.
What happens next will be measured in the envoy’s itinerary and in the Doha process rather than in further statements from Beijing. If Zhai Jun’s visits to Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia in early and mid-November produce visible coordination with the Qatar-mediated talks, China’s diplomatic push will look like more than rhetoric. If the Doha draft stalls after the US elections, Beijing’s call for dialogue will remain on the record — but the region will be left waiting for a political solution that, for now, exists mainly as a proposal in circulation.
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