According to a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry, Yi said the two countries should push for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue during a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur. “Peace cannot be achieved through force, and applying pressure won’t solve problems.”
Dialogue and negotiations were the solution to the conflict, Yi added.
The two foreign ministers also discussed China–Russia coordination with the countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Russia and China stand united in opposing actions and plans to militarize the region, including attempts to deploy NATO-standard military infrastructure,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated after the meeting.
During the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro on 7 July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow was ready to aid in mediating negotiations between the US and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Lavrov offered Russia’s technical assistance to help Iran replenish its depleted uranium stocks by removing uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels and replacing it with uranium suitable for power generation. “We have technological capacities and we are ready to offer them, taking the excess of overly enriched uranium and returning the power-generation-grade uranium to the Islamic Republic and its nuclear facilities.”
The US and Israel have insisted that Iran end all uranium enrichment on its own soil. Tehran insists that enriching uranium within its borders is its right under international law and according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iran is seeking relief from US sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program, which it insists is for producing energy, not a nuclear weapon.
On 8 July, Iran denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that it had requested to resume talks with the US over its nuclear program.
“No request for a meeting has been made on our side to the American side,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Tuesday.
The US and Iran were engaged in nuclear talks in June when Israel launched a surprise war on Tehran on 13 June. During the 12-day war, Israeli bombing killed 1,060 people, while Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attacks on Israel resulted in at least 28 deaths.
The US joined the attack on 22 June by bombing three of Iran’s major nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
Trump reportedly used the nuclear negotiations to deceive Iranian leaders into thinking that no Israeli attack was imminent.
“Israel and the US carried out a multi-faceted misinformation campaign in recent days to convince Iran that a strike on its nuclear facilities was not imminent,” the Times of Israel reported.
A US official told the Israeli news site that US President Donald Trump was an “active participant in the ruse,” and knew about the military operation in advance.