Newsletters
China has privately urged Iran to help rein in Yemen's Houthi movement after Saudi Arabia appealed to Beijing for assistance, following a rapid Houthi military advance along the Red Sea coast last week, three Iranian sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The request marks a departure from China's public posture on the conflict, which has so far been limited to general calls for restraint and dialogue.
Privately, the sources told Reuters, Beijing's message to Tehran went further, urging Iran to use its influence over the Houthis to prevent the fighting from spreading and further threatening energy routes that China, the world's second-largest economy, relies on heavily.
Riyadh turned to Beijing after Houthi forces made swift gains along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint that has left Saudi oil exports and regional shipping increasingly exposed, the sources said.
It was not clear how China's message was delivered to Tehran, or whether it was raised during a visit to China on Wednesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
Responding to a Reuters request for comment, China's foreign ministry said it "does not wish to see regional tensions further spill over into Yemen and the Red Sea," adding that escalating instability serves no one's interests.
The ministry called for facilities "vital to people's livelihoods" to be spared from attack and urged that disputes be resolved "through dialogue and negotiation." Iran's foreign ministry and Saudi Arabia's government media office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
According to the Iranian sources, Tehran's response was that regional stability hinges on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The sources said Chinese officials stopped short of issuing explicit threats or signaling that Beijing would use economic pressure against Tehran if it failed to act on the Houthis.
China has been Iran's largest trading partner for more than a decade and remains the principal buyer of its oil.
Chinese purchases made up more than 80% of Iran's seaborne oil exports in 2025, averaging roughly 1.4 million barrels per day, according to data from commodities analytics firm Kpler.
"Beijing is one of the few capitals that can still press Iran to rein in the Houthis," a senior Western diplomat in the region told Reuters.
The Houthis, who emerged in the 1990s in opposition to Saudi religious influence in Yemen, are armed, trained and funded by Iran, according to the Iranian sources and Western governments, and form part of Tehran's self-described "Axis of Resistance" against Israel and the West.
The stakes extend well beyond Yemen. With the Strait of Hormuz already effectively shut amid Iranian moves to block it, sustained Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping or ports would choke off the Middle East's two principal oil-export corridors at once, compounding the global energy crisis and widening Iran's confrontation with Washington.
"China depends on both," one of the sources said, noting that Iran and its allies now hold sway over both ends of the region's key maritime network.
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told Reuters that while Beijing may resist US pressure campaigns against Tehran, its own interests in the Middle East reach far beyond Iran.
Roughly half of China's oil imports originate in the region, he noted, and annual trade between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council states totals about $300 billion. "Iran can disrupt Hormuz," Vatanka said, "but at some point that leverage begins hurting the very power Tehran increasingly depends on."
Whether Tehran will act on Beijing's concerns remains unclear, the three Iranian sources said. The relationship still carries substantial weight for Iran, which continues to face hostilities with the United States and needs investment to sustain an oil industry strained by war and sanctions. China is among the few countries with the financial capacity to provide that support.
Beijing has previously shown it can shape regional diplomacy: in 2023, it brokered the agreement that restored diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia after years of estrangement. But that influence has limits.
Inside Iran, critics have pointed to the modest scale of Chinese non-oil trade and investment since the two countries signed a 25-year cooperation pact in 2021, especially set against Beijing's larger investment commitments to Gulf Arab states.
Two of the Iranian sources said China remains a factor Tehran cannot ignore, but only one among several competing strategic, economic and political considerations shaping Iran's decisions.
"Tehran and Beijing need each other," the Western diplomat said. "China is a factor Tehran cannot ignore, and Beijing wants Hormuz reopened and Red Sea shipping secured."
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
