Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday called for peace and restraint in Iran situation as tension between the US and Iran keeps simmering. 

China opposes the use or threat of force in international relations, opposes imposing one's own will on others, and opposes a return of the world to the "law of the jungle," Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said during a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Thursday.

While the tension continues, there also seems to be mixed signals from the US on its threat of military action - Iran had briefly closed its airspace for nearly five hours and the US reportedly deployed three missile destroyers and at least one submarine to the Middle East. 

Meanwhile, Washington could be lowering rhetoric, as some media put that the US President reportedly informed Tehran that the US would not strike the country and asked the Islamic Republic to exercise restraint as well, Pakistani outlet Dawn reported on Thursday afternoon, citing Iran's envoy to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam. The Global Times noted it has not been confirmed by the US side as of press time. 

Earlier, in what Al Jazeera described as signaled a softening of his tone toward Iran, President Donald Trump said that "important sources" in Tehran told the US government that the Iranian government has halted its crackdown on protesters, leaving open the question of whether he intends to order military strikes against Iran after repeated warnings, media reported on Thursday. 

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday local time that during a White House signing ceremony, Trump said Iran had notified Washington it would no longer carry out hangings of protesters. When asked by a reporter if that meant a US military response was now off the table, he said only, "We're going to watch and see."

Since the unrest erupted in Iran, the US has pursued a hybrid pressure campaign, pairing increasingly belligerent rhetoric with an escalation of military intimidation against Tehran, Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times. 

Liu noted that at the same time, Washington appears to be still evaluating its options. Although Trump has sent a series of hard-line signals, the US remains reluctant to become drawn into a prolonged conflict in the Middle East. 

That tension, Liu said, helps explain the administration's mixed messaging. Even if the US ultimately decides to strike Iran, it would most likely opt for a limited, short-term and controllable action rather than a full-scale war.

Trump has told his national security team that he would want any US military action in Iran to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime and not spark a sustained war that can drag on for weeks or months, according to a US official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House, NBC reported on Thursday. 

Simmering tension

Amid the tense and fluctuant situation, Iran reopened its airspace after a near-five-hour closure amid concerns about possible military action between the US and Iran that forced airlines to cancel, reroute or delay some flights, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Trump has reportedly deployed three missile destroyers and at least one submarine to the Middle East, reported The New York Times and other US media.

The destroyers are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, bringing them within striking range. Meanwhile, some personnel are being urgently evacuated from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the region.

Politico reported the British embassy in Tehran has closed, and the German government has advised airlines to avoid Iranian airspace due to risks of escalation and anti-aircraft weapons. 

Qatar on Wednesday confirmed in a statement that some personnel are departing from the US Al Udeid Air Base in the country over "regional tensions," per Xinhua.

Regarding the evacuation, an informed Iranian official said in Tehran on Wednesday that the move could be part of US psychological warfare against Iran, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The official added that the Iranian armed forces are fully prepared for any scenario to unfold, are monitoring all the developments and US movements in the neighboring countries, and will take the necessary actions in case of any attack against the country.

After the reported US personnel evacuation from Qatar base, the Chinese Embassy in Qatar on Wednesday reminded Chinese nationals and Chinese-funded enterprises in the country to closely follow relevant news reports and strengthen security precautions.

The UN Security Council will meet Thursday on the situation in Iran, said a spokeswoman for the Somali Permanent Mission to the United Nations, whose country holds the rotating council presidency for the month of January, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that while the possibility of a US military action against Iran cannot be ruled out, Washington currently lacks sufficient justification, conditions and capacity for a large-scale strike. 

If the US ultimately resorts to the use of force, it is more likely to carry out a limited, punitive operation, with targets like Iran's ballistic missile launch sites and drone production facilities, aimed at preventing Tehran from posing further threats to Israeli and US military bases in the Gulf, said Sun.

Sun warned that an overly aggressive campaign, by contrast, would risk drawing the US into a prolonged war of attrition with Iran - a scenario Washington is keen to avoid.

Historical experience suggests that when the US intervenes militarily against Iran, Tehran often strikes back by targeting US-linked countries in the Middle East, Niu Xinchun, executive director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University, told the Global Times, noting that the scale of US intervention in Iran has a direct bearing on regional security. Should Washington choose large-scale military action, the entire Middle East would face severe and widespread security risks, the expert warned.