ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/DUBAI: US President Donald Trump said on Friday (May 15) 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 on Friday 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.
“WE WANT THE STRAITS OPEN”
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping in response to US-Israeli attacks that began on Feb 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 Araghchi 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 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 programme, suggesting the enriched uranium needed to be secured by the US for “public relations” rather than practical necessity.
Oil prices rose around 3 per cent to around US$109 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 might need to hike rates to rein in inflationary pressures from the blockade.
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.”
IRAN 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 US congressional elections in November, have been on hold since last week when Iran and the US each rejected the other’s most recent proposals.
Iran would welcome Chinese input, Araghchi 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 strikes.
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.
Iran state media said on Friday that more than 31 million Iranians had signed up for a campaign to demonstrate public readiness to defend the country in a conflict, as the country started weapons courses for pro-government volunteers.
Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas as well as fertiliser and other vital supplies passed through the strait. Attacks on shipping have prevented almost all traffic. 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 U.S. and Israeli air strikes, and thousands have been killed in Lebanon in renewed fighting there between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
The US State Department announced on Friday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a 45-day extension of a fragile ceasefire, which had been due to expire on Sunday.
Hezbollah opposes the talks, in which Israel is insisting on the group’s disarmament.