China has privately asked Tehran to help rein in Yemen's Houthis after an appeal to Beijing by Saudi Arabia following the Iran-backed group's military blitz in the past week, Reuters reported, citing three Iranian sources.
Riyadh turned to China for help after the Houthis made rapid advances along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, moves that have left Saudi oil exports and shipping more exposed, the sources said.
China has publicly called for restraint, dialogue and the restoration of safe navigation, but its private message went further than the public statements, they said.
Beijing wants Iran to use its influence with the Houthis to help prevent the conflict spreading further across energy routes on which China, the world's second-largest economy, depends.
The sources said Tehran's response was that stability and peace in the region depend on ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
