President Donald Trump said late Monday that he does not believe China and Russia are helping Iran at all in its ongoing war with the United States and Israel, even as outside reporting describes a far murkier picture of weapons deals, oil purchases and quiet diplomatic cover flowing from Beijing and Moscow to Tehran. “I don't believe they are at all,” Trump said, adding that “if they are, it's at a very low level.”
Trump made the remarks after returning to the White House in Washington, according to Reuters, which reported the comments came amid ongoing scrutiny of China and Russia's posture toward Iran. The president said he had seen critics and opponents claim that the two countries were aiding Tehran, but argued Beijing and Moscow had too much to lose by getting involved. “They have too much to lose,” he said, according to a separate account from streetinsider.com. Trump also said the United States would learn of any assistance almost immediately, telling reporters the US would know about such aid “very fast,” per Reuters.
A War Now Entering Its Eighth Month
The United States and Iran have been at war since February 28, when the US and Israel struck Iran and Tehran answered with strikes on Israel and Gulf states hosting American bases, the Reuters report via streetinsider.com notes. The fighting, combined with Israeli attacks on Lebanon, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, according to the same account. Trump's comments Monday build on a pattern of public assurances he has offered for months about Beijing and Moscow staying out of the conflict.
Back in June, Trump described Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “neutral” during the war, saying Xi had been helpful toward resolving the conflict and had avoided sending in “big weaponry” or shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, the outlet's reporting from that period shows. In July, Trump said he trusted China and Russia not to help Iran in the war, while also warning that involvement would be “very bad” for both countries, according to the dossier's timeline of his remarks. During Xi's visit to Washington in September, Trump again warned the Chinese leader against providing support to Iran, and the US ambassador to China said Xi assured him that Beijing would not support Tehran.
Reports Of Missiles, Oil And Satellite Images Complicate The Picture
Yet the picture painted by outside reporting is less clear-cut than Trump's public assurances suggest. Amid reports cited by the Reuters account, China reportedly supplied Iran with shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers — a claim that sits directly against Trump's June account of Xi avoiding exactly that kind of weaponry. The dossier presents both versions without resolving the conflict between them. Separately, Reuters has reported that Iran evaded sanctions on its oil sales with Chinese help, and Trump dismissed a report that Iran had obtained satellite images of a Jordan base from Chinese entities before a July attack that killed three US troops there.
Moscow and Beijing have maintained close ties with Tehran throughout the war, even as Beijing has publicly condemned Washington's attacks on Iran as a violation of its sovereignty. Russia, for its part, has said the war could fuel a nuclear arms race across the Middle East, according to Reuters's earlier coverage of Trump's June remarks thanking Xi and Putin for staying neutral and for not thwarting his efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Analysts See A Deeper, Longer-Running Relationship
Analysts cited by the outlet attributed the risks of direct intervention to high costs, limited gains and unpredictable risks in a shooting war involving Israel and the United States. The Guardian has separately reported that China buys an estimated 80% of Iran's oil exports, making it the largest buyer of Iranian crude.
