Trump warns Xi over Chinese support for Iran, receives assurances, US envoy says
Trump and Xi did not take formal questions during the three-day state visit to Washington.
Highlights:
- Perdue says Washington received Beijing assurances on Thursday that China was not supporting Iran
- Senior Iranian official says Chinese officials vowed ties with Tehran would not be limited
- Reuters reported in July Iran expected up to 400 Chinese-made air-defense launchers within weeks
US President Donald Trump warned Chinese President Xi Jinping against providing support to Iran during talks in Washington this week and received assurances that China would not do so, the US ambassador to China said yesterday (25 September).
The warning came amid reports that China had supplied Iran with shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers and that Tehran had found ways to evade sanctions on its oil sales with Chinese help.
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David Perdue, Trump's ambassador to Beijing, said in a CNBC interview that Trump reiterated to Xi that direct or indirect support for Iran was "totally unacceptable."
Asked separately on Fox News if that meant China would stop assisting Iran, Perdue said Washington received assurances from Beijing on Thursday.
"We've seen movement ... on that already. That's what commitment is. They assured us yesterday they're not doing that," Perdue told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
Trump later yesterday acknowledged that the two leaders discussed the war that the US and Israel launched on Iran in late February, without giving details.
US lawmakers had urged Trump to confront Xi over reports of Chinese assistance to Iran, raising concerns that Chinese entities may have given targeting help that led to US casualties in the conflict.
Chinese officials have assured Iran that even after the Trump-Xi meeting China will not limit its economic, political or military ties with Tehran under pressure from the US president, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.
Reuters reported in July that Iran was expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers.
Iran has also used a barter-like arrangement to bypass sanctions on its oil sales and buy billions of dollars' worth of goods from China, including military gear, two senior Iranian sources and three other people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month.
Chinese state newswire Xinhua reported on Thursday that Xi had urged the US and Iran to return to negotiations to end the war, but Xi has not publicly commented on Chinese support for Iran.
Trump and Xi did not take formal questions during the three-day state visit to Washington.
Earlier this month, Trump brushed aside a report that Iran acquired satellite images of a base in Jordan from Chinese entities before an attack that killed three US troops there in July.
"They basically do what we do," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on 13 September. "When they say China spies on us, I say you're right and we spy on them too."
