Iran26 September, 20262 min read
Trump Tells Xi Jinping To Halt China’s Assistance To Iran During State Visit
Trump told Xi any Chinese support to Iran was totally unacceptable. US ambassador said they received assurances China would not provide such assistance.
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Trump presses Xi on Iran
President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to halt any assistance to Iran during their state visit, U.S. Ambassador to Beijing David Perdue said Friday.
Perdue told CNBC that Trump made clear that any help to Iran, whether direct or indirect, whether intelligence or parts or military equipment, was “totally unacceptable.”
Perdue said the U.S. told China that Iran is an independent issue not linked to Taiwan in any way, and he said the U.S. has seen evidence that China “pulled some things down.”
The talks came a day after U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a new round of indirect negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, with Qatari officials participating by passing messages between the two parties.
Satellite imagery and Hormuz
U.S. officials said Iran used high-resolution imagery obtained from Chinese commercial satellites to target U.S. bases in the Middle East as well as aircraft carriers and other Navy ships in the Gulf and in Arabian Sea. Perdue said the discovery prompted the U.S. military to change its operational procedures to make it harder for Iran to locate and target Navy ships, and he described the issue as a recurring subject in U.S.-China discussions.
Xi urged Trump to de-escalate with Iran by returning to the June memorandum of understanding and reaching a nuclear deal, and Xi told Trump that “China has encouraged relevant parties to stay committed to peaceful solutions and maintain the momentum of talks.” Iran proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming nuclear talks in a week if the U.S. lifts its naval blockade, removes sanctions on oil sales and reinstates a ceasefire across the region, while U.S. negotiators told the Iranians that Iran does not control the strait and therefore can’t make demands about it.
What is at stake next
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met in New York with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss the diplomatic effort, and a source said Qatar and Iran were waiting to hear Trump’s response to Iran’s proposal. Perdue said Washington remains concerned about possible indirect Chinese support for Iran, while acknowledging that the U.S. has no direct evidence of China helping Tehran keep the contested Strait of Hormuz closed.
The U.S. said dozens of oil tankers are transiting the strait each day under U.S. protection, moving millions of barrels of oil to global markets, still well below pre-war volumes but enough to ease pressure. The dispute over Iran support also sits alongside U.S. efforts to isolate Iran through economic pressure, with Axios describing a “massive economic pressure campaign” that it said would be only partially effective without Chinese cooperation.