On Thursday, the US military conducted airstrikes in Syria in response to a drone strike carried out by Iranian forces earlier in the day, which killed one American and injured six others. The Defense Department said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria, and US intelligence assessed the UAV to be of Iranian origin. President Biden authorized the airstrikes against facilities used by groups affiliated with the IRGC, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said that the US had taken “proportionate and deliberate action” to limit the risk of escalation. The US has around 900 troops stationed in Syria.
China has denied having any selfish interests in brokering peace talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia last Friday. A spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry stated that the country “pursues no selfish interest whatsoever in the Middle East” and opposes geopolitical competition in the region. The statement emphasized that China respects the stature of Middle Eastern countries as the masters of the region and has no intention of seeking to fill any so-called vacuum or put up exclusive blocks. The peace talks were seen as a diplomatic victory for China, which is viewed as a neutral party with strong ties to both Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
