US-Iran Tensions Push China to Urge “Calm and Restraint”

China on Tuesday urged “calm and restraint” as tensions between the US and Iran escalate following US President Donald Trump’s new sanctions on Iran. “We believe that blindly applying maximum pressure will not help solve the problem,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a press briefing in Beijing.

Trump wants to avoid impeachment by making himself a wartime president.
He’s looking to start a war, and in the Middle East there are plenty of crazies who are happy to oblige.
We.need to get our troops out of there!https://t.co/7YJtUSMU9q

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) June 17, 2019

“Facts have proved that these measures have had the opposite effect and aggravated regional unrest,” he added.

Relations between Washington and Tehran have rapidly deteriorated over the past few weeks, after the US accused Iran of being behind a series of attacks on ships in sensitive Gulf waters — claims hotly denied by Tehran.

Photo: Carlos Barria, Reuters

On Monday, Trump further raised the stakes in an escalating regional standoff by imposing sanctions against Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top military chiefs.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman denounced the sanctions as “the permanent closure of the path to diplomacy” with the Trump administration. “We hope that the parties concerned will maintain calm and restraint and avoid further escalation of tension,” Geng said.

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