Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit Beijing this week and meet with his counterpart Wang Yi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.

The two men – who also met on the sidelines of the Brics conference in New Delhi last week – will hold talks on Wednesday, it said.

The talks between the foreign ministers come just one week before an expected trip by President Xi Jinping to Washington, where he will meet his US counterpart, Donald Trump.

The war in Iran will be a closely watched topic at that meeting, among other thorny issues ranging from trade to competition over artificial intelligence.

Beijing rejected reports this week that Chinese entities allegedly supplied Tehran with satellite images of a military base housing US troops in Jordan.

"We firmly oppose groundless suspicion and accusations without evidence," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday.

News of Araghchi's visit comes as diplomatic sources said the UN Security Council is to meet on Tuesday after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis last week seized control of the country's Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Bab al-Mandab is a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia via the Red Sea that has become vital as the wider US-Iran war chokes the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran's navy said on Monday a super oil tanker seeking to cross the Strait of Hormuz via the "forbidden" route south of the waterway exploded and caught fire after hitting naval mines.

The navy said efforts to contain the fire on the tanker, identified as El Gaia, were futile, and the entire vessel was engulfed in flames. (AFP/Xinhua)



Edited by Tony Sabine