BEIJING/MOSCOW: US and Israeli attacks on Iran are unacceptable, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday as he called for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of talks to prevent a wider regional conflict.

The “blatant killing of a sovereign leader” and the incitement of regime change were “unacceptable,” Wang told Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a phone call, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s account of the call said Wang and Lavrov denounced the strikes “carried out despite Tehran’s openness to dialogue”. The ministers called for their immediate cessation “and stressed the need for a political and diplomatic settlement of all questions on the Iran issue, including ensuring the lawful interests of security of all Gulf states”.

Wang said China wanted an immediate cessation of military action and a return to dialogue as soon as possible. On Sunday, China’s embassy in Israel advised its nationals to evacuate to safer areas within the country or to leave for Egypt via the Taba border crossing.

Putin slams killing of Khamenei, but offers little beyond condolences so far

China’s foreign ministry on Sunday also urged Chinese citizens in Iran to leave “as soon as possible”, listing four land routes to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq.

Chinese citizens have been injured in the attacks, and some of them have been stranded, China’s foreign ministry said, warning Chinese nationals against travelling to the region altogether.

In a commentary on Sunday, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency criticised the attack, calling it “brazen aggression against a sovereign nation” and “power politics and hegemony”.

Xinhua said Washington’s use of military coercion was a “flagrant violation” of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and a departure from “fundamental norms of international relations”.

Fall of third Russian ally in 15 months

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday condemned the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “cynical” murder but he offered little in public to Moscow’s ally beyond condolences.

Khamenei is the third Russian ally to be toppled in the past 15 months, following the falls of Moscow-backed leaders in Syria and Venezuela. His death leaves the Kremlin facing a strategic setback in a region where it has long sought greater influence.

Russia says this weekend’s US and Israeli attacks have thrust the entire Middle East into the abyss, although some Iranian sources have said that they have had little real help from Moscow in the biggest crisis for Iran since the US-backed Shah was toppled in the 1979 revolution.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year openly speculated that Israel could prompt regime change, Putin cautioned that Iranian society could consolidate around the political leadership there.

Putin conveyed his condolences to the family of Khamenei, the government of Iran and the people of Iran in a note to President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Kremlin said.

“Please accept my deep condolences in connection with the murder of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law,” Putin said in the note. Putin has long kept up contacts with Khamenei.

His first visit outside the former Soviet Union since the start of the 2022 Ukraine war was to Tehran where he met Khamenei. Both wary of intercepts by US intelligence, Putin and Khamenei would sometimes exchange written messages or communicate by envoy.

Talks with Americans make no sense

The Kremlin has shown little appetite to date for challenging US President Donald Trump over Iran and has been more successful than the West predicted in negotiating with Syria’s new rulers.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the influential editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Politics magazine, compared the “murder” of Khamenei to the 2011 killing of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi and the 2006 death by hanging of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

Lukyanov said the wider lesson from the events in Iran was clear: “Negotiating with the Americans makes almost no sense.” While Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for its war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier last year, their relationship since the 16th century, when Muscovy officially established relations with the Persian Empire, has at times been troubled.

The published strategic partnership does not contain a mutual defence clause, and Russia has repeatedly said that it does not want Iran to develop an atomic bomb, a step that Moscow fears would trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.

“In our country, Ayatollah Khamenei will be remembered as an outstanding statesman who made a huge personal contribution to the development of friendly Russian-Iranian relations and bringing them to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership,” Putin said.

While it is unclear who will ultimately rule Iran after Khamenei, if there is a sustained supply disruption to oil from the Gulf then Russian oil revenues will increase, bolstering its war economy.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2026