US calls on China to convince Iran to restrain Houthi?

The report said the US had raised the issue repeatedly with top Chinese officials over the past three months, but "there have been few signs of help from Beijing".

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy Jon Finer discussed the matter during meetings in January 2024 in Washington with Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, according to the Financial Times.

A Houthi loyalist fighter carries a machine gun during a military parade in Yemen on January 22.

The newspaper said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also raised the proposal with his Chinese counterpart, adding that US officials believe there is little evidence that China has exerted pressure on Iran.

The US and China have not confirmed the above information.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have carried out a series of attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea, saying the attacks were to show support for Palestinians in their ongoing conflict with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

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Houthi attacks have disrupted shipping and raised concerns about global inflation. The maritime threats also raise the risk that the Hamas-Israel conflict will spill over and cause further instability in the Middle East.

Early on the morning of January 24, the US military conducted airstrikes in Yemen, destroying two anti-ship missiles that the Houthis were preparing to launch into the Red Sea.

Earlier, the Pentagon announced that the US on January 23 conducted several attacks in Iraq targeting three facilities linked to Iran-backed militias, Reuters reported.

AFP quoted Iraq's National Security Adviser Qassem al-Aaraji as saying that US attacks on Houthi "do not help bring peace".

The US "should have pressed to stop the [Israeli] attack in Gaza instead of targeting and bombing the bases of an Iraqi national institution," the official said.

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