Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Beijing on Wednesday for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, in a visit that underscores China's growing role in efforts to resolve the conflict between Iran and the United States. The one-day trip comes one week before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping in Beijing on 14 and 15 May — the first visit by a US president to China since Trump's earlier term — and signals Tehran's determination to secure Chinese backing before the two superpowers sit down together.

At the heart of the meeting is the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a significant share of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Iran effectively closed the strait after a US-Israeli military campaign against the country began on 28 February, sending fuel and fertiliser prices sharply higher and disrupting global supply chains. A ceasefire was brokered last month — with China credited by multiple diplomats with using its leverage as Tehran's largest oil buyer to push Iran back to the negotiating table — but the strait remains a flashpoint. The US subsequently imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, and a US military operation to escort stranded vessels through the strait, launched earlier this week, prompted a fresh escalation before Trump announced a pause, citing