“If the Middle East is unstable, the world will not be at peace,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday. “If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly.”

China hosted a summit for African leaders last week while the Trump administration weighed adding two dozen more African countries to its travel ban list.

China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and hundreds more from Israel, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday, as evacuees clog border crossings amid the intensifying conflict between the two countries.