China’s foreign minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation on March 1 with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at Moscow’s request, as Beijing and Moscow responded to US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

According to XINHUANET, Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that at the joint prompting of China and Russia, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting the day before to address the situation in Iran.

He said China had consistently upheld the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and opposed the use of force in international relations; a common claim by Beijing although China has said it does not rule out the use of force in taking Taiwan.

Wang described the decision by the US and Israel to launch strikes on Iran during ongoing Iran-US negotiations as unacceptable. He went on to add that the killing of the leader of a sovereign state and the incitement of regime change (in Iran) were similarly unacceptable.

Such actions, Wang said, violated international law and the basic norms governing relations between states.

Wang went on to war that the escalation of the conflict had already spread across the Persian Gulf and risked pushing the wider Middle East into what he termed a dangerous abyss.

He then set out Beijing’s position in three points. First, he called for an immediate cessation of military operations to prevent the conflict from spreading further or spiralling out of control, adding that China attached great importance to the security of Gulf countries and supported restraint – a source of much of its oil supplies.

Second, he urged a swift return to dialogue and negotiations. In doing so, he said that all parties should work to encourage peace and press for those involved to resume to talks as early as possible.

He also called for joint opposition to any unilateral actions, arguing that strikes against sovereign states without prior authorisation from the UN Security Council (UNSC) undermined the foundations of peace established after WWII

Lavrov meanwhile added that yhe US-Israeli strikes had seriously undermined stability in the Middle East, continuing that Russia shared China’s position and was ready to strengthen coordination and communication with Beijing through platforms including the UN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with the ultimate aim of calling for an immediate end to hostilities and a return to diplomatic negotiations.