A series of mysterious cargo planes from China appear to have flown close to Iran’s airspace before falling off the radar in recent days, fuelling concerns that Beijing may be quietly assisting in the conflict.
Public flight trackers showed at least three Boeing 747 freighters, which are commonly used for transporting military equipment and weapons, taking off from Chinese cities on Saturday — the day after Israel attacked Iran — Sunday and Monday, The Telegraph reports.
China used these cargo planes to transport weapons to Serbia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan to conceal material support to Russia and the Middle Eastern conflict regions. A Chinese arms shipment includes HQ-16 and HQ-17E anti-aircraft missile systems bound for Tehran.
In each case, the planes flew westward along northern China, crossed into Kazakhstan, then south into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan before disappearing from radar as they neared Iran.
Flight plans indicated the planes were bound for Luxembourg, but none of the aircraft appeared to fly near Europe.
“These cargos cannot but generate a lot of interest because of the expectation that China might do something to help Iran,” Andrea Ghiselli, a lecturer at the University of Exeter who specialises in China’s relations with the Middle East and North Africa, told the newspaper.
Cargolux, the Luxembourg-based company that operated the planes, told The Telegraph its flights did not utilise Iranian airspace but did not respond to questions about what they were carrying.
China and Iran are strategic partners aligned against the US-led world order, and Beijing has a history of supplying Tehran with military equipment including conventional arms and ballistic missile materials that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.
Since the 2000s, international sanctions have led to a significant decrease in direct arms transfers, with the focus shifting towards “dual-use” materials.
Iran, in return, is one of China’s key energy suppliers.
“The collapse of the current regime would be a significant blow and would generate a lot of instability in the Middle East, ultimately undermining Chinese economic and energy interests,” Mr Ghiselli said.
“Moreover, in Iran there are probably many that are expecting some kind of help from China.”
However, experts said China, aware of the risk of further escalating tensions with the US amid a high-stakes trade war, would approach the situation with caution.
In his first public comments on the conflict that has dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday China was “deeply worried” about Israel’s military operation.
Speaking on the sidelines of a summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana, President Xi said China opposed any actions that infringe upon the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of other countries, per Reuters.
“All parties should work to de-escalate the conflict as soon as possible and prevent the situation from worsening further,” he said, in comments quoted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Tuvia Gering, a researcher with the Atlantic Council think tank and a China and Middle East specialist at Israel’s Institute of National Security Studies, said while the “likelihood remains low” that China was sending military equipment to Iran, the “possibility “should not be dismissed and must be closely monitored”.
In later comments on X, Mr Gering said he had been told by an aviation expert that the flights were likely benign.
“There are regular cargo flights by the Luxembourg-based freight company from several locations in China to Europe, with a stopover in Turkmenistan (just a few dozen kilometres from the Iranian border),” the unnamed expert told Mr Gering.
“Some flight tracking websites lose the tracking signal shortly before landing and continue to show a projected route that appears to enter Iranian airspace. The sites clearly indicate that this is an estimated path; checking the aircraft tail numbers shows they take off again from Turkmenistan a few hours later, and reviewing the flight history of these routes shows they always land in Ashgabat and do not continue into Iran.
“All this is before even considering the obvious logic that a major European cargo company is highly unlikely to be the channel through which China transfers its super-advanced, top-secret strategic weapons to Iran.”
It came as US President Donald Trump reportedly greenlit attack plans for Iran ahead of a meeting in the White House Situation Room.
Mr Trump told senior aides late on Tuesday, US time, he had approved the plans but was waiting to see if Iran would abandon its nuclear program, three sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The President earlier told reporters on the White House lawn he “may” or “may not” order US forces to join the conflict.
“You don’t know that I’m going to even do it,” he said. “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”
Russia has warned the US against involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict, stressing it would “radically destabilise” the Middle East.
“We caution Washington against even speculative, hypothetical options of this kind. It would be a step that would radically destabilise the entire situation,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian state media Interfax.
“The United States is constantly at the forefront of all processes, and to say that they did not intervene before and now they will intervene, I think would be wrong.”
He added Russia is “in contact with both sides”. “This is happening at the working level and at the political level,” he said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday declared that the Iranian people “are not one to surrender”, a day after Mr Trump called for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender”.
“Let the Americans know that the Iranian nation is not one to surrender, and any military intervention on their part will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage,” Mr Khamenei said in a national televised address.
“Those who are wise and familiar with Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation in the language of threats.”
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