“If the Middle East is unstable, the world will not be at peace,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday. “If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly.”

Mystery transport planes from China to Iran detected on FlightRadar24 have sparked speculation about China supporting its ally as tensions escalate between Iran and Israel.

China hosted a summit for African leaders last week while the Trump administration weighed adding two dozen more African countries to its travel ban list.