Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit China Wednesday, according to a Tuesday statement from the ministerial spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. China’s President Xi Jinping offered Saturday to play a diplomatic role in resolving the Iran War.

Nevertheless, a diplomatic resolution to the conflict still appears distant. Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, dismissed President Donald Trump’s suggestion that negotiations could be imminent.

“Don’t get distracted by the U.S. president’s mixed signals—from ‘no negotiations’ to ‘we’re ready to talk.’ The stakes around oil and the straits have changed,” he wrote in a Monday post on X. Damage control won’t stop what’s coming. No talks until Iran’s conditions are met. Period!”

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The Pentagon’s inspector general on Monday released its first report to Congress on the Iran War, covering the period from April 1 to June 30. It said that “the munitions expenditure in [Operation Epic Fury] has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.” The report also noted the difficulties of finding adequate naval basing in the Persian Gulf region and the distance-related challenges of using Diego Garcia for logistics support.

Bloomberg reported that the UK government was considering intervening to help Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s Houthis, who in recent days have made significant territorial gains on the Red Sea coast, threatening the Middle East’s second main sea lane.

Houthi gains and successful strikes by pro-Iran Iraqi militias on the Saudi East–West Pipeline have added new pressures on energy markets. Brent crude opened Tuesday at $106 per barrel. AAA reported a national average price of $4.33 per gallon of regular gas and another all-time record of $6.27 per gallon of diesel.