China has denied a Reuters report claiming that Iran was poised to receive 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defence missile launchers within weeks, calling the account “not true and not factual at all”, according to Al Jazeera.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has told a regular news briefing in Beijing that China has made “its position clear on relevant issues on multiple occasions”.

“The reports are not true and not factual at all,” she says, adding that Beijing “always works for peace and the end of the conflict”.