China expresses concern over Red Sea attacks, calls for restraint

China, on Wednesday, called for a stop to attacks on civilian ships and urged the relevant parties to avoid adding fuel to the fire in the Red Sea, Anadolu Agency reports.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, expressing deep concerns over the recent escalation of tension in the Red Sea, said it is an important international trade route for goods and energy.

Wang said Beijing has been in close communication with various parties and working actively to end the tension in the Red Sea.

China urged relevant parties to avoid adding fuel to the fire in the Red Sea and jointly safeguard the safety of the Red Sea shipping route in accordance with the law, he told reporters during a regular press briefing.

Wang added that tension in the Red Sea is a manifestation of the spill-over of the Gaza conflict and now the priority is to end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible to avoid further escalation and prevent the situation from getting out of control.

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“We believe that the Security Council has never authorised the use of force by any country on Yemen and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen and other coastal countries of the Red Sea need to be earnestly respected,” he said while apparently referring to the recent US and UK airstrikes.

The US and British forces said they conducted the strikes Monday against eight Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks in the Red Sea.

Following the strikes, Yemen’s Houthis vowed to retaliate, as Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said: “These assaults won’t go unpunished.”

Tensions have escalated in the Red Sea amid Houthi attacks on commercial ships suspected of having links with Israel.

The Houthis say their attacks aim to pressure Israel to halt its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, killing more than 25,700 people. About 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli onslaught has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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