Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi holds calls with China’s Wang Yi amid Israeli-US attacks on Iran.
Published March 3, 2026
Iran’s foreign minister has briefed senior members of China’s central committee and his counterpart, Wang Yi, promising to do everything possible to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in the country amid the war launched by the United States and Israel.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comment in a phone call on Monday with Wang, which focused on the situation in Iran as Tehran defended itself “at all costs,” the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a statement.
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“Seyed Abbas Araghchi noted that the Iranian side will do everything possible to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Araghchi told Wang that Washington had “launched war against Iran for the second time during the ongoing negotiations,” even though both sides had made “positive progress in the last round of negotiations.”
The United States and Israel launched their surprise attack on Iran on Saturday, just after Oman’s foreign minister – who had mediated the latest round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran – said a peace deal was closer than ever.
“A peace agreement is within our reach,” Badr al-Busaidi said in an interview with CBS News just hours before the attack on Iran began.
Tehran “had no choice but to defend itself,” Araghchi told his Chinese counterpart, adding that he hoped Beijing would play a role in preventing further escalation of the conflict in the region.
“China values the traditional friendship between China and Iran and supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and national dignity and defending its legitimate and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang told Araghchi, according to the ministry.
“China has urged the United States and Israel to immediately cease military actions to prevent further escalation of tensions and prevent the conflict from expanding and spreading to the entire Middle East region,” Wang said.
The call between the ministers comes as China continues to maintain close relations with Iran and has worked in the past to end Tehran’s isolation on the world stage, including granting Iran membership in BRICS+ – a bloc representing major emerging economies that aims to challenge the Western-led system – and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, according to London-based think tank Chatham House.
Chatham House Associate Fellow Ahmed Aboudouh said Beijing and Tehran are comprehensive strategic partners and signed a 25-year strategic agreement in 2021.
“China remains a lifeline for the Iranian economy” amid crushing sanctions, Aboudouh added.
More than 80 percent of the oil shipped by Iran in 2025 went to China, accounting for about 13.5 percent of all the oil China imported by sea, Aboudouh wrote in a recent briefing paper.
