China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that unilateral sanctions have nobasis in international law.

In a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian onTuesday night, Wang said: “China understands Iran’s legitimate concerns(and) supports Iran in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests andopposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law.”

The phone call between the top diplomats of China and Iran came afterAbdollahian’s trip to Russia where he met Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry, Abdollahian briefedWang on the latest progress of the negotiations on resuming compliance withthe 2015-Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Irannuclear deal.

“Iran is ready to resume the negotiations as soon as possible to resolvethe final outstanding issues through consultation with other parties andstrive for a good agreement,” Abdollahian told Wang, thanking Beijing “forits constructive role in the negotiations.”

Wang reiterated that China supports the early conclusion of the agreementon resuming compliance with the JCPOA and “is open to and supportive ofefforts conducive to the realization of this goal.”

“In the face of the rapidly evolving international and regional situation,China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Iran to pushfor the resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue in a direction conducive toregional peace and stability,” Wang said.

In Moscow, Lavrov said during a joint news conference with Abdollahian thatRussia has “got written guarantees under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal thatwill “protect its cooperation with Iran against the recent US and EUsanctions.”

Russia is under a flurry of sanctions by the US and its allies over its waron Ukraine since Feb. 24.

Beijing has not condemned the war and has pushed back sanctions, termingthem “illegal and unilateral.”

China has instead suggested a four-pronged solution to end the war.