Beijing pushes Tehran to restrain Houthi allies as Saudi Arabia seeks help

China has privately pressed Iran to use its influence over Yemen’s Houthi movement after Saudi Arabia appealed directly to Beijing for help containing the group’s rapid military advance, according to three Iranian sources familiar with the discussions.

Riyadh turned to China after Houthi forces pushed swiftly along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and around the Bab el Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, leaving Saudi export routes newly exposed at a moment when traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is already badly disrupted by the wider regional war. The sources said Beijing’s public statements have called only for restraint, dialogue and the restoration of safe navigation, but that its private message to Tehran went considerably further than those public remarks suggested.

The appeal reflects China’s unusual position in the unfolding crisis. Beijing has been Iran’s largest trading partner for more than a decade and remains the primary buyer of Iranian crude, giving it substantial economic leverage over Tehran even as it maintains close commercial ties with Gulf Arab states. Chinese purchases accounted for more than 80 percent of Iran’s seaborne oil exports in 2025, averaging roughly 1.4 million barrels a day, according to data from commodities analytics firm Kpler. A senior Western diplomat in the region said Beijing remains one of the only capitals still capable of pressing Iran to restrain the Houthis.

Two Iranian sources cautioned that China’s interests represent just one of several factors shaping Tehran’s decisions, alongside competing strategic and political priorities. Iran’s foreign ministry and the Saudi government’s media office did not respond to requests for comment on the reported exchange.

China has shown diplomatic reach in the region before. Beijing brokered the 2023 agreement that restored diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia following years of hostility between the two countries. That track record gives added weight to its current appeal, though the relationship has its limits. Critics inside Iran have pointed to the relatively modest scale of Chinese investment and non oil trade since the two countries signed a 25 year cooperation agreement in 2021, particularly when set against Beijing’s growing commercial commitments across the Gulf Arab states. China remains a factor Tehran cannot dismiss outright, the sources said, even as its influence competes with other pressures shaping Iranian policy.

Iran, for its part, has linked broader regional stability to an end of the ongoing war between the United States, Israel and Tehran, according to people familiar with the matter, suggesting Iranian officials see the Houthi issue as connected to the larger conflict rather than separate from it. Oman has reportedly been approached about brokering a two week ceasefire as part of efforts to calm the situation, though details of those talks remain limited.

The diplomatic push comes as the security picture around Saudi Arabia continues to deteriorate. Saudi air defences said they intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca on Tuesday before it could enter restricted airspace over the holy city, an incident the Houthis denied was aimed at the city itself. The group, which emerged in the 1990s in opposition to Saudi religious influence in Yemen, has for years relied on Iranian arms, training and funding, a relationship that gives Tehran real, though not unlimited, sway over its conduct.

China’s approach to the crisis underscores how deeply its own economic interests are tied to stability along the routes the Houthis now threaten. Beijing, as the world’s second largest economy, depends heavily on secure shipping lanes for energy imports and trade with Europe, and a further disruption to Red Sea traffic would compound costs already rising from the broader war involving Iran, the United States and Israel. That dependence gives China a direct stake in de escalation even as it avoids taking sides publicly in the underlying conflict.

The episode also illustrates a broader pattern in how Beijing has positioned itself in Middle Eastern diplomacy in recent years, favouring quiet, transactional pressure over public mediation efforts of the kind Western governments have typically pursued. Whether that approach succeeds in moderating Houthi behaviour will likely depend on how much weight Tehran places on its economic relationship with Beijing relative to the other strategic calculations now shaping its response to the war unfolding on its doorstep.