Trump and Xi agree Iran can’t have nuclear weapons
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US President Donald Trump has agreed in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the Islamic republic cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and must reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also said his patience with Iran is running out and Tehran had to make a deal.
“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” Trump said on Friday after he met Xi in Beijing on the second day of talks that included the Iran war, Taiwan, trade and other issues.
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping traffic in response to US-Israeli attacks which began on February 28, causing an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies.
China is close to Iran and the main buyer of its oil.
The US paused its attacks on Iran in April but began a blockade of the country’s ports.
Talks aimed at ending the conflict have stalled with Iran refusing to end its nuclear program or relinquish its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Tehran denies it intends to build a nuclear weapon.
Xi did not comment on his discussions with Trump about Iran, although China’s foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining Beijing’s frustration with the Iran war.
“This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue,” the ministry said.
Trump said of Iran in an interview aired on Thursday night on Fox News: “I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal.”
After talks between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the White House said the leaders had agreed that the strait should be open and that Xi made clear China’s opposition to the militarisation of the waterway and any effort to charge a toll for its use, as Iran has threatened to do.
Trump said Xi also promised not to send Iran military equipment.
“He said he’s not going to give military equipment, that’s a big statement,” Trump said.
Xi also expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s future dependence on the strait, the White House readout of the talks said.
Trump is keen to elicit Chinese support to end a war that has become an electoral liability as it drags on towards key US midterm elections in November.
But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Iran hard or end support for its military, given its value as a strategic counterweight to the US.
In an interview with CNBC from Beijing on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed China would “do what they can” to help open the strait, something “very much in their interest”.
But diplomacy has been on hold since Iran and the US each rejected the other’s most recent proposals.
Thousands of Iranians were killed in the US and Israeli air strikes in the first weeks of the war, and thousands more have been killed in Lebanon since the war reignited fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials on Thursday in Washington were productive and positive, according to a senior State Department official, who said they were set to continue on Friday.
Trump said his aims in starting the war were to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, end its ability to attack neighbours and make it easier for Iranians to overthrow their government.
A senior US admiral told a US Senate committee on Thursday Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbours and US regional interests had been “significantly degraded”.
But Admiral Brad Cooper declined to directly address reports by Reuters and other news organisations that Iran had retained significant missile and drone capabilities.
Reuters