Beijing, Sept. 16 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday said Tehran is not interested in continuing the conflict with the US and looks forward to returning to
a diplomatic solution, as he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and briefed him on the latest developments in West Asia.
His visit to Beijing comes in the midst of an escalation of hostilities in West Asia following the military advances made by Yemen's Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah.
The Iran-aligned Yemeni political and armed movement has stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia and taken control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
The Iran-US war has already restricted the movement of ships and oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a widespread energy crisis.
Araghchi's visit also comes days after his well-publicised interactions with Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi held from Sept 12-13. Araghchi accompanied Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to the summit. This is Araghchi's fifth visit to China since 2024, reflecting the close ties between Tehran and Beijing.
During the meeting, Wang said both Iran and the US should return to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the conflict.
He said the continued prolongation of the US-Iran conflict is not in the common interest of the parties concerned and the international community, a readout by the Chinese Foreign Ministry here said.
China encourages Iran and the US to stay rational and exercise restraint, return to the MoU at an early date, rebuild the negotiation mechanism.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.