US President Donald Trump has said his patience with Iran was running out and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but China gave no indication it would weigh in.
As he flew back from Beijing yesterday after two days of talks with Xi, Trump said he was considering whether to lift US sanctions on Chinese oil companies buying Iranian oil. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
His comments shed no light on whether Beijing might use its influence with Tehran to end a conflict it said should never have started. “I’m not asking for any favours because, when you ask for favours, you have to do favours in return,” Trump said, when asked by a reporter on board his plane whether Xi had made a firm commitment to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the strait, a key waterway for oil shipments.
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.
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping in response to US-Israeli attacks that began on February 28, causing an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies.
The US paused its attacks on Iran last month but began a port blockade. Tehran said it would not unblock the strait until the US ended its blockade. Trump has threatened to attack Iran again if it does not agree to a deal.
“We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon, we want the straits open,” Trump had said in Beijing, sitting alongside Xi. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had received messages from the US indicating Washington was willing to continue talks.
“We hope that, with the advancement of negotiations, we will reach a good conclusion so that the Strait of Hormuz can be completely secured and we can expedite the normalisation of traffic through the strait,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
Iran has refused to end nuclear research or relinquish its hidden stockpile of enriched uranium, to Trump’s frustration.
“I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal,” Trump said in an interview aired on Fox News’ Hannity programme, suggesting the enriched uranium needed to be secured by the US for ‘public relations’ rather than practical necessity. Oil prices rose around three per cent to around $109 a barrel on concerns over a lack of progress in resolving the conflict.
After talks between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the White House said Xi had made clear China’s opposition to any Iranian effort to charge a toll for use of the strait.
Trump said Xi also promised not to send Iran military equipment. “That’s a big statement,” Trump said on Hannity.
Asked about US sanctions on Chinese oil refineries buying Iranian oil, Trump told reporters on his plane: “We talked about that and I’m going to make a decision over the next few days.”
China has dismissed reports it had plans to supply weapons to Iran as ‘groundless smears’, but analysts doubt Xi will want to push Iran hard or end support for its military, given its value as a strategic counterweight to the US.
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