Xi, Putin discuss West Asia, slam Israeli strikes, press for ceasefire

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday strongly condemned Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire, “especially” by Israel, and an end to attacks on civilians.

In a phone call, Xi discussed the Israel-Iran conflict with Putin and said a ceasefire is an urgent priority in settling the conflict in West Asia, and the use of force is not the right way to resolve international disputes.

This was Xi’s first comment on the current conflict in the region, amid US President Trump’s warning to Iran and Israel’s threat to target Iran’s Supreme Leader.

“Presidents Putin and Xi, in their hour-long phone call, have agreed to issue orders to their relevant agencies to share information on Iran,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in Moscow.

He said both leaders hold a similar stance and “strongly condemn Israel’s actions that violate the UN Charter and other norms of international law”.

Iran’s foreign minister will meet with European counterparts in Geneva as an Israeli airstrike campaign continues to target his country, state media reported on Thursday. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency report.

Meanwhile, Iran is maintaining crude oil supply by loading tankers one at a time and moving floating oil storage much closer to China, two vessel tracking firms said, as the country seeks to keep a key source of revenue while under attack from Israel.

Crude exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, mainly head to China. Loadings have so far been largely unaffected by the conflict with Israel, the trackers said.

Iran has loaded 2.2 million barrels per day of crude oil so far this week, marking a five-week high, the latest data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

In other news, hackers with possible links to Israel have drained more than USD 90 million from Nobitex, Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to blockchain analytics firms. The group that claimed responsibility for the hack leaked on Thursday what it said was the company’s full source code.

Trump needs 2 weeks to decide on Iran

The White House announced that US President Donald Trump will decide whether to join Israel’s campaign against Iran’s military and nuclear program within two weeks, saying that Trump still sees a window for diplomacy to address Israeli and US demands on Iran’s nuclear programme. Meanwhile, Israel’s President Iran strike on Beer-Sheva’s Soroka Hospital a war crime.