President Donald Trump said that Beijing assured him it would not supply any weapons to Iran.
China is Tehran’s most valuable ally, and Iran’s ballistic missile program is reliant on Chinese chemicals. In a Wednesday morning post on Truth Social, Trump boasted that he’d won over China.
“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also – And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran,” he wrote.
“President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks. We are working together smartly, and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to – far better than anyone else!!!” Trump added.
His claim that he was “permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz” comes despite Washington imposing its own blockade of the strait, closing it down entirely for the time being. The president seemed to imply that the U.S.’s closing of the strait was intended to open it permanently later on.
Trump elaborated on Beijing’s promise not to supply Iran with weapons in an interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.
“He responded to a letter I wrote, because I had heard that China is giving weapons … to Iran,” he said in the interview, aired on Wednesday morning. “I wrote [Chinese President Xi Jinping] a letter asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying essentially he’s not doing that.”
China’s hesitance to supply Iran with weapons during the war may also reflect its investments in the Gulf countries, which it has tried to sway away from U.S. influence. Any use of Chinese weapons against the Gulf countries, the primary target of Iran in the war, would tank its reputation in the region.
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China has largely relegated itself to rhetorical support for Tehran in its war with the U.S. and Israel, despite having some of the most to lose. China receives a massive amount of discounted oil from Iran, and the decline of this supply has forced it to look elsewhere, a factor that has played a major role in the global energy crisis.
If China remains true to its alleged pledge not to supply weapons to Iran, Tehran’s only hope would be Russia, which is keen not to draw U.S. ire, which could change its policy toward Ukraine in its war with Russia.
