Trump says he is losing patience with Iran, did not ask China for any favours
His comments shed no light on whether Beijing might use its influence with Tehran to end a conflict it said should never have started.
Summary
- Trump says he and Xi agreed on need to open strait
- China says war should never have happened
- Iran has to 'make a deal', Trump says
- Iran says it is prepared for a deal or a return to war
US President Donald Trump said his patience with Iran was running out and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed that Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but China gave no indication it would weigh in.
As he flew back from Beijing on Friday (15 May) 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.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
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 favors because, when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return," Trump said, when asked by a reporter on his plane home whether Xi had made any firm commitment to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the strait.
"We've wiped out their (Iran's) armed forces, essentially. We may have to do a little cleanup work."
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.
'We want the straits open', says Trump
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping in response to US-Israeli attacks that began on 28 February, causing an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies.
The US paused its attacks on Iran last month but began a blockade of its ports. 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 a deal.
"We don't want them to have a nuclear weapon, we want the straits open," Trump 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, which has long denied that it intends to build a nuclear weapon, has refused to end its 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 Thursday night on Fox News' "Hannity" program, suggesting the enriched uranium only needed to be secured by the US for "public relations" rather than practical necessity.
Oil prices rose around 2% to around $108 a barrel on concerns over a lack of progress in resolving the conflict.
US Treasury yields hit their highest in around a year as traders anticipated the Federal Reserve may need to hike rates to rein in inflationary pressures from the blockade. /US
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, he told reporters on his plane: "We talked about that and I'm going to make a decision over the next few days."
Iran says it does not trust the Americans
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
Talks on ending the war, which has become a liability for Trump ahead of key US midterm elections in November, have been on hold since last week when Iran and the US each rejected the other's most recent proposals passed via Pakistan.
Iran would welcome any Chinese input, Foreign Minister Araqchi said on Friday, adding that Tehran was trying to give diplomacy a chance but did not trust the US, which has curtailed previous rounds of talks by launching air wars against Iran.
Iran is prepared for a resumption of fighting as well as for diplomatic solutions, Araqchi said, reiterating that vessels not linked to states attacking his country could traverse the Strait of Hormuz if they coordinated with Iran.
Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas as well as fertiliser and other vital supplies passed through the waterway. Attacks on shipping have prevented almost all traffic, although a huge Chinese tanker and another linked to Japan crossed the strait on Wednesday.
The UAE said it would speed up building a new pipeline to its port in Fujairah just outside the strait, after a vessel heading to it was sunk this week and another was boarded and redirected to Iran.
Thousands of Iranians were killed during the US and Israeli air strikes, and thousands have been killed in renewed fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
With a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon due to expire on Sunday, discussions between Lebanese and Israeli officials were set to resume on Friday. Hezbollah opposes the talks, in which Israel is insisting on the group's disarmament.
