US calls on China to persuade Iran to restrain Houthi?

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

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy Jon Finer discussed the matter in 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 gunman carries a machine gun during a military parade in Yemen on January 22.

The paper 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.

Houthi rebels in Yemen, backed by Iran, have carried out repeated shelling of ships passing through the Red Sea, saying the attacks were aimed at showing support for Palestinians in their ongoing conflict with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

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Houthi attacks have disrupted maritime trade 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 on January 23, the US 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".

According to this official, the US side "should put pressure to stop the [Israeli] attack in Gaza instead of targeting and bombing the bases of an Iraqi national agency".

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