Chinese envoy calls on Israel to stop risky military actions

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations expressed serious concern on Monday over the escalation of tensions in the Middle East caused by Israel’s actions against Iran, stressing that any risky military action is irresponsible.

Heavy explosions were heard in the Iranian capital Tehran in the early hours of Saturday as Israel confirmed it had launched “precision strikes” on military targets in Iran in response to earlier attacks by the country.

At the request of Iran, China, Russia and Algeria, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Monday on Israel’s attack on Iranian targets. Many parties called on both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation spiral.

Fu Cong, China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, speaking at the meeting, called on Israel to cease all provocative actions.

“China condemns any violation of Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and opposes destructive actions that threaten regional peace and security. Currently, relations between Iran and Israel and the entire situation in the Middle East are on the verge of danger. We express serious concern over the escalation caused by Israel’s actions and calls on Israel to truly stop all provocative actions,” Fu said.

Fu said China calls on all parties to remain calm and restrained, abide by the UN Charter and the principles of international law, and return to the right track to resolve disputes through political and diplomatic means.

“We call on countries that have significant influence over Israel to put saving lives and preventing war first and abandon any other political calculation. The relevant parties should support the Security Council in taking further strong actions on the current situation to promote an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate cooling of the situation in Lebanon and Israel, to effectively curb the expansion of the conflict,” Fu said.

The three Shenzhou-19 astronauts will perform several extravehicular activities (EVAs) and dozens of space science experiments during their upcoming six-month mission, according to the trio, who have been well prepared and will be sent to China’s Tiangong space station on Wednesday.

The Shenzhou-19 manned spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at 04:27 Wednesday (Beijing time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Tuesday.

Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze will carry out the mission, and Cai will be the commander, according to the agency.

Cai participated in the Shenzhou-14 manned space flight mission, while Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, among the third group of Chinese astronauts, are newbies in space.

During their stay in space, the Shenzhou-19 crew will perform several extravehicular activities to continue various tasks, such as installing space debris prevention devices for the space station and deploying and recycling payloads and platform equipment outside the space station.

“Our extravehicular tasks are mainly to protect the space station. When the space station is orbiting in space, it can be affected or even affected by micrometeoroids and space debris, so we need to protect some important pipelines and devices outside the space station,” Wang said.

In addition, the three astronauts will conduct 86 space science research and technology experiments inside and outside the space station, including structural analysis of protein crystal growth and nonequilibrium dynamics of soft matter under microgravity conditions.

“Over half of the experiments are new or modified, and many of these research projects are very significant and interesting, so I am looking forward to them. We have made many careful and detailed preparations for these projects. I believe that we will do a great job in conducting these experiments, which embody the painstaking efforts of scientists,” Cai said.

As the trio is new to many tasks and experiments, during the training they have divided up the work and prepared their specific tasks in detail.

“We went through some special training for these tasks and experiments and addressed our shortcomings until we mastered the basic movements. 01 (Cai) will assign specific tasks according to our specialties. I will be responsible for space station management and equipment maintenance and repair,” said Song. “For example, I am relatively more careful, so I will play the role of studying the manual and guiding their operations, while 01 (Cai) and 02 (Sang) will take more responsibility in operation. This way, we all have a job, one reading the manual, operating and reviewing, this can ensure that the project is completed successfully in one go.