China's head of West Asian and North African affairs visited Iran over the weekend in a bid to boost ties and discuss the Israel-Gaza war.
Tehran said it hoped to "strengthen communication and coordination" with China to de-escalate the war in Gaza as Wang Di, director general for the region at the Chinese foreign ministry, met Iranian diplomatic officials on Saturday, according to the ministry. It was the first visit by a Beijing official to the country since the war began last month.
Wang reiterated Beijing's stance on the war, saying there was an "urgent need for ceasefire" as the conflict had caused "large-scale civilian casualties". He made the comments during meetings with Ali Bagheri, Iranian foreign ministry deputy for political affairs, and leaders of regional departments.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The meeting comes just ahead of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden on Wednesday in San Francisco, where the two leaders will talk about the conflict in Gaza. China's influence on Iran has been viewed as having potential to prevent the war from escalating.
Iran has been a key backer of militant group Hamas, giving financial and military support, but it denies involvement in the group's sudden assault on Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Tehran has also backed other anti-Israel militant groups in the region, which has led to international concern over Iran's position on the war.
Wang said Beijing and Tehran had made "consistent progress" in their relations, and exchanges and cooperation in all areas had been "strengthened continuously".
Beijing signalled it would elevate its cooperation with Tehran in August, when Xi met his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Johannesburg and pledged to work with Iran on multilateral alliances.
During the summit, Iran and three other Middle Eastern states, along with Ethiopia and Argentina, were admitted to the bloc, which had previously consisted of just five major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings in Kyrgyzstan in October, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber that Beijing wanted to boost coordination with Tehran through multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, the SCO and Brics.