Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to China on September 16 for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to China’s Foreign Ministry, which said the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
Beijing, which is diplomatically aligned with Iran and economically exposed to instability in the Middle East, has continued to call for a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement. China has also argued that any outcome should preserve Tehran’s sovereignty and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying Beijing had supplied Iran with satellite imagery of a base in Jordan. The report said the intelligence may have helped an Iranian strike in July that killed three U.S. troops.
Trump is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in the United States on Sept. 24, although Beijing has not yet confirmed that meeting.
Washington details the cost of the Iran war
A lead inspector general report from the U.S. Department of Defense, submitted to Congress, said the Iran war had cost the United States an estimated $33.4 billion as of June 29. The report was released Monday and tracks the conflict through the end of June.
According to the same document, Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed “hundreds of buildings and structures” at U.S. bases in the Middle East, as well as “dozens” of U.S. aircraft. It also put physical damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at $184 million.
The Pentagon said heavy U.S. munitions use during the conflict created strategic inventory shortfalls and exposed industrial bottlenecks in resupplying weapons stocks.
The report said a fifth-generation F-35A was damaged by enemy fire, marking the first time that aircraft type has sustained battle damage. By the end of June, four F-15E fighter jets and one A-10 ground attack aircraft had also been destroyed.
According to the U.S. Air Force, an F-35A costs $92 million per aircraft, while the F-15E cost $31.1 million in 1998. The report also said seven KC-135 refueling aircraft were damaged or destroyed, while seven helicopters and more than 30 drones were lost.
