China's envoy calls Iran missile aid claims 'baseless' after Israeli security officials speak out

Chinese Ambassador to Israel Xiao Junzheng rejected as "baseless" allegations of Chinese military assistance to Iran, following claims by former senior Israeli security officials that Beijing helped Tehran develop its missile and nuclear capabilities.Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on the sidelines of SIGNAL Group's annual conference on Israel's China and Indo-Pacific policy on Thursday at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Xiao defended China's relationship with Iran."I have to say, the kind of baseless arguments I heard today actually also came up at this conference last year," Xiao said.Among those raising the allegations was Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior IDF intelligence officer."In the past, when I was in the Prime Minister's Office, I was more optimistic about the relations with China. I worked very hard to help improve those relations," Amidror said. "Now, when I see the relations between China and some countries in the region, mainly Iran, I'm not so optimistic."Iran turns to China to rebuild military infrastructure during war with Israel, USAmidror alleged that following Israeli strikes against Iran's missile-production infrastructure, Tehran turned to China to help restore its manufacturing capabilities."We succeeded in our attacks to destroy part of the Iranian capability to manufacture missiles that can reach Israel.