Chinese Special Envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun has said at a briefing after his shuttle-diplomacy trip that included recent stops in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait that the US-Israeli operation against Iran must immediately cease or else a "vicious cycle" toward destabilizing the region and disrupt global trade would persist.
"Should hostilities continue to escalate and the situation deteriorate further, the entire region will be plunged into chaos. The use of force will only lead to a vicious cycle… the war should not have begun in the first place," Zhai declared.
Washington's latest war of choice in the Middle East has been focus of growing condemnation from Beijing, with Zhai having added: "The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it." Or this is another way of saying whatever the US broke it must quickly fix.
Separately, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated at the start of this week that continued military action risks deepening instability, and reminded Washington that its past wars in the same region "are not far behind us."
It was only days ago that President Trump called on China and Japan to assist in getting the Hormuz Strait back open, but something which especially China has little incentive to do, as its instead content to watch the US get bogged down in a quagmire amid Tehran's unexpected resilience under the bombs.
Iran has meanwhile held a phone call with China's foreign minister, per Bloomberg: "Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called on all parties in the Iran war to seize every opportunity and window for peace and start peace talks as soon as possible, Xinhua reports. Wang made the appeal in a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi."
China has long been a powerful ally of Tehran providing with diplomatic cover, institutional support, military cooperation and an economic lifeline - especially as its major oil buyer; however, China is not expected to go further with any kind of direct military support.
There are claims that it could be, alongside Russia, providing some intelligence support though. If this is the case, there is not much Washington can do about it - also as the White House response to widespread reports of Russian intelligence-sharing has been met with some pretty mild and meager statements out of the White House.