China offered to play a “constructive role” to ease tension between Pakistan and Iran following their missile strikes against each other
Beijing: China Thursday offered to play a “constructive role” to ease tension between Pakistan and Iran following their missile strikes against each other over the last two days and asked the two countries to “exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation”.
Pakistan conducted “precision military strikes” against what it called “terrorist hideouts” in Iran’s Siestan-Balochistan province that killed 9 people in the wee hours on Thursday. The attack was seen as retaliation to Iranian missile and drone attacks on Tuesday which targeted two bases of the Sunni Baloch militant group ‘Jaish al-Adl’ in Pakistan’s unruly Balochistan province.
The attacks have put China in a piquant situation as Pakistan is an all-weather ally, while Tehran is warming up to Beijing in recent years enabling China to expand its influence in the West Asia region. China also imports a considerable amount of oil from Iran.
“Did you say that Pakistan launched strikes on Iran? I’m not aware of this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a media briefing when asked whether China is aware of Pakistan airstrikes inside Iran.
