Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in a Beijing meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi (Express Tribune).
What he said
“We urge all parties to take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at an early date.”
China “does not want to see regional tensions to spill over further into Yemen and the Red Sea”.
He encouraged both sides to show restraint and to return to the Islamabad memorandum for substantive consultations.
The detail Pakistani readers should not skim past
The Islamabad memorandum. China’s foreign minister is publicly directing Iran back to a framework named after Pakistan’s capital — a reference to the US-Iran talks Pakistan hosted earlier this year.
Pakistan has been describing itself as a mediator throughout this crisis, and the prime minister will tell the UN General Assembly on 25 September that the confrontation should be settled by negotiation. Beijing citing the Islamabad process as the venue to return to is external corroboration that the role is real rather than self-declared.
It is also a reminder of its limits. The framework exists; the shooting has continued through it.
Why China is pressing
Because it is Iran’s largest oil customer and the world’s largest crude importer. A closed or contested Hormuz costs Beijing directly, and China has more leverage over Tehran than any other government and has so far used little of it in public.
The other half of the report
CBS News obtained photographs from serving personnel showing damage from Iranian strikes across US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan — including a direct hit on a Boeing E-3 Sentry at Prince Sultan Air Base with its tail section severed, and damage to armoured vehicles at Camp Buehring.
The Pentagon’s inspector general put equipment losses at about $3.7 billion, including nearly 60 aircraft.
What is not established
No Iranian response to Wang’s appeal has been reported, and no date or format for any resumption of consultations has been announced. The base damage assessment rests on photographs obtained by a broadcaster and an inspector general estimate; the Pentagon has not confirmed the individual items.
[Image: Reuters via The Express Tribune]
