China asks Tehran to curb the Houthis after a Saudi appeal

China has privately asked Iran to use its influence with Yemen's Houthis to stop the fighting from spreading further along energy routes, three Iranian sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on 17 September. The request followed an appeal from Saudi Arabia after a week of Houthi advances along Yemen's Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the chokepoint between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Beijing's public line has been familiar. It wants restraint, dialogue, respect for sovereignty, and safe navigation. The private message, the sources said, went further. China, the world's second-largest oil importer, wants Iran to keep the conflict off routes that feed Chinese refineries. The sources did not say how the message was delivered, or whether it came up when Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Wang Yi in Beijing on 16 September. That meeting produced a public call from Wang for steps to restore safe shipping and steady energy supplies.

Tehran's reply, according to the same sources, linked regional calm to an end of what it called the US-Israeli war against Iran. Chinese officials did not attach threats or talk of economic pressure. It remains unclear whether Iran will act. China's foreign ministry told Reuters it does not want tensions to spread into Yemen and the Red Sea and that further instability serves no party.

The geography explains why Riyadh called Beijing. Houthi forces have tightened their hold on stretches of Yemen's western coast. Shipping through Bab el-Mandeb already carries a large share of Europe-Asia traffic. The Strait of Hormuz, the other Gulf exit, has been disrupted by the Iran war that began on 28 February. When both gates are in play, Saudi crude that used to move west through the Red Sea and east through Hormuz faces a narrower set of paths. Brent traded near $103 a barrel this week after Houthi strikes on Saudi infrastructure, including damage reported to the East-West pipeline toward the Red Sea. Riyadh then offered extra cargoes via Oman. That is a patch, not a restored route.

Saudi officials have also asked France, Pakistan, Egypt and the United Kingdom for help against missiles and drones, after US interceptor stocks were drawn down during the Iran campaign. The United States, according to separate reporting, met Houthi representatives at its embassy in Muscat over the weekend. The discussion, a source told Axios, focused on keeping the May 2025 US-Houthi ceasefire and keeping Bab el-Mandeb open. Houthi interlocutors said their maritime attacks were aimed at Saudi ships. Al-Akhbar reported that Saudi Arabia has asked Oman to mediate a two-week ceasefire with the Houthis. Those tracks can run at the same time as the Chinese request. They do not replace it.

China's leverage with Iran is real and limited. Beijing buys Iranian oil that other buyers will not touch at posted prices. It is a political partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and at the UN. It is not a combatant in Yemen and it does not command Houthi batteries. Asking Tehran to "rein in" the group assumes Iran can set the pace of an offensive that now serves Houthi aims as much as Iranian ones. The sources offered no evidence that Tehran accepted that premise.

The test for this channel is visible. If Houthi attacks on Saudi export routes slow after Araghchi's Beijing visit, the private ask will look like it worked. If the group keeps pushing along the coast and at sea, Riyadh will have used its China card and still need the Oman track, the Western air-defence requests, and its own aircraft. Wang Yi has already said out loud that energy routes should be protected. The next days will show whether that sentence was a press line or an instruction Tehran is prepared to pass on.