Red Sea Attacks: China Cautions Iran To Stop Houthis After Saudi Arabian Appeal | Sahara Reporters

China has been Iran’s largest trading partner for more than a decade and remains the country’s main buyer of oil.

China has privately asked Iran to use its influence to rein in Yemen’s Houthi rebels after Saudi Arabia appealed to Beijing over recent Houthi attacks, Reuters has reported, citing three Iranian sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Beijing’s private message to Tehran went beyond its public calls for restraint, dialogue and the restoration of safe navigation in the region.

The sources said China asked Iranian officials to help prevent the Houthis from disrupting energy routes that are crucial to China’s economy.

The report did not provide details on how the message was delivered or whether the request was made during a visit to China on Wednesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

However, the Iranian sources said Tehran’s response was that stability and peace in the region would depend on ending what they described as the US-Israeli war on Iran.

China’s request comes amid growing concerns over the security of major maritime routes in the Middle East, particularly the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connect the region’s oil-producing countries to global markets.

China has been Iran’s largest trading partner for more than a decade and remains the country’s main buyer of oil.

Chinese purchases accounted for more than 80% of Iran’s seaborne oil exports in 2025, averaging about 1.4 million barrels per day, according to commodities data and analytics firm Kpler.

The close economic relationship between Beijing and Tehran has given China significant interests in maintaining the flow of energy through the region.

“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 emerged in the 1990s in opposition to Saudi Arabia’s Sunni religious influence in Yemen and have since become a major armed force in the region.

Iranian sources and Western countries say the group is armed, trained and funded by Iran and forms part of Tehran’s anti-Western and anti-Israel “Axis of Resistance”.

The Houthis have previously targeted commercial and military vessels in and around the Red Sea, citing their opposition to Israel and the conflict in Gaza.

Any renewed or sustained threat to shipping through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could further pressure global energy markets, particularly as Iran has also been blocking or restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, carrying a significant share of global oil and gas shipments.

With traffic through Hormuz already effectively shut, sustained Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea could affect the Middle East’s two major oil-export routes simultaneously.

Such a development could create another major disruption to global energy supplies while opening a new front in the wider confrontation involving Iran, the United States and Israel.

One of the sources told Reuters that Iran and its allies now exert pressure over both ends of the region’s key maritime network, adding that “China depends on both”.

The reported Chinese intervention highlights Beijing’s growing concern that the wider conflict in the Middle East could threaten the energy supplies on which its economy depends.

While China has publicly called for restraint and a diplomatic resolution to the regional crisis, the reported private appeal to Iran suggests Beijing is also seeking to protect its economic and energy interests from further disruption.

The extent to which Tehran may act on Beijing’s request remains unclear.

The Iranian response, according to the sources, indicates that Tehran continues to link regional stability to the broader conflict involving the United States and Israel, rather than treating the Houthi attacks as an isolated issue.