China has privately asked Iran to use its influence to curb Yemen’s Houthis after Saudi Arabia appealed to Beijing, three Iranian sources familiar with the talks told Reuters.
Riyadh turned to China after the Iran-backed group made rapid advances along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait last week. Beijing’s public line has been restraint, dialogue, and safe navigation; the private message went further, the sources said. China wants Iran to help keep the fighting from spreading across energy routes on which the world’s second-largest economy depends.
The sources did not say how the message was delivered or whether it came during Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s visit to China on Wednesday. Tehran’s reply, they said, was that regional stability depends on ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Chinese officials issued no explicit threats and did not signal they would apply economic pressure if Iran failed to act.
China is Iran’s largest trading partner and the main buyer of its oil, taking more than 80 percent of Iran’s seaborne crude exports in 2025. It also brokered the 2023 deal that restored Iran-Saudi ties.
