Press Tehran to cease ‘malign’ activities, US says ahead of Iranian FM’s visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of a visit by the foreign minister of Iran to Islamabad, the US State Department said on Thursday it would ‘welcome’ any country pressing Tehran to curb its “malign and destabilizing activities,” especially attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis.
On Monday, US and British forces carried out a round of strikes in Yemen, targeting a Houthi underground storage site as well as missile and surveillance capabilities used by the Iran-aligned group against Red Sea shipping. The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping and stoked fears of global inflation. They have also deepened concern that the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war could destabilize the Middle East.
Last week these concerns deepened when Pakistan and Iran traded airstrikes on alleged militant camps inside each other’s territory in tit-for-tat attacks which were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years. However, both nations moved to quickly de-escalate and announced in a joint statement that ambassadors of both countries had been asked to return to their posts by Jan. 26 while the Iranian foreign minister would visit Pakistan on Jan. 29.
At a press briefing on Thursday, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel responded to questions about Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian’s upcoming visit to Pakistan and what message Washington wanted Islamabad to give him.
“Should any country around the world be interested in continuing to call on Iran to cease its malign and destabilizing activities, its activities that particularly in the Red Sea are making international waterways and legitimate commerce unsafe, we’d welcome any country continuing to press Iran to curb its support for those kinds of actions,” Patel said.
The United States has asked China to urge Tehran to rein in Houthis attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea but has seen little sign of help from Beijing, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. 
However, on Friday, Reuters reported that Chinese officials had asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in the attacks or risk harming business relations with Beijing. 
The attacks, which the Houthis say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, have raised the cost of shipping and insurance by disrupting a key trade route between Asia and Europe used widely by ships from China.