Beijing, March 8 — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi strongly condemned the joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, saying the escalation ‘should never have happened.’ Citing Al Jazeera, he called for an immediate halt to fighting and a rapid return to diplomatic talks.
Speaking at a Beijing news conference, Wang warned that military force ‘will never resolve’ the deep-rooted crisis in the region and said reliance on force undermines international order: ‘A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.’
Al Jazeera reported Wang reiterated China’s firm opposition to maneuvers intended to destabilise Iran’s government, saying there is no popular support for regime change and that such efforts would only inflame regional tensions further.
The remarks came as the Israel Defence Forces said the Israeli Air Force carried out targeted strikes on multiple Iranian military assets in Tehran. The IDF posted on X that it had ‘STRUCK, Several Fuel Storage Complexes Belonging to the IRGC in Tehran.’ It said the operation, guided by Israeli intelligence, hit sites identified as distribution hubs supplying resources to various armed units and described the targets as complexes used by ‘the Iranian terrorist regime’ to distribute fuel.
The IDF claimed the strikes inflicted significant damage on Iran’s military infrastructure and released imagery identifying what it called a ‘fuel storage facility in Tehran used by the military forces of the Iranian terror regime,’ stressing the strategic nature of the targets.
On Saturday (US time), President Donald Trump said the United States had wiped out Iran’s leadership, calling the action the removal of a major ‘cancer.’ When asked about responsibility for the bombing of an elementary girls’ school in Iran, Trump denied US involvement and blamed Iran’s own munitions for the strike, saying, based on what he’d seen, it ‘was done by Iran’ and that their munitions are ‘very inaccurate.’
Trump said, ‘We’re winning the war by a lot. We’ve decimated their whole evil empire,’ adding that the campaign had achieved more than expected in its first week. He outlined what he described as extensive damage to Iran’s forces — saying the US had wiped out Iran’s navy and air force, destroyed most missiles, targeted missile manufacturing and crippled drone capacity, at one point claiming ‘We’ve wiped out their navy, 44 ships. We’ve wiped out their air force, every plane. We’ve wiped out most of their missiles.’ He also said many elements of Iranian leadership had been removed.
Asked about earlier six-week projections, Trump said he had set no timetable and would do ‘whatever it takes,’ calling Iran’s military ‘almost nonexistent’ and leaving further strikes as an option.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, travelling with the president, told reporters a diplomatic deal remained possible but would depend on the president’s decisions. He said previous talks had faltered over Iranian positions on enrichment and what he described as Iranian boasts about stockpiles that could be used for bombs, suggesting Iran would need to change its stance for diplomacy to succeed.
The current crisis followed a joint US-Israel strike on February 28 inside Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures, prompting a strong Iranian retaliation. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles and drones at US assets and allies across the region, including Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, broadening the conflict in West Asia and heightening risks for civilians and expatriates.
This report is sourced from a syndicated feed and published as received; The Tribune assumes no responsibility for its accuracy, completeness or content.
