BEIJING, May 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said his patience with Iran is running out and he had agreed in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the Islamic republic cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and must re-open the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” Trump said on Friday after he met Xi in Beijing on the second day of talks which included the Iran war, Taiwan, trade and other issues.
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping traffic in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks which began on February 28, causing an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies. China is close to Iran and the main buyer of its oil.
The U.S. paused its attacks on Iran last month but began a blockade of the country’s ports. Talks aimed at ending the conflict have stalled with Iran refusing to end its nuclear program or relinquish its stockpile of enriched uranium. Tehran denies it intends to build a nuclear weapon.
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.
Trump said of Iran in an interview aired on Thursday night on Fox News’ “Hannity” program: “I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal.”
On the key issue of Iran’s hidden stockpile of enriched uranium, Trump suggested it only needed to be secured by the U.S. for public relations purposes.
“I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint,” Trump said in the interview.
“I just feel better if I got it, actually. But it’s, I think, it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”
After talks between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the White House said the leaders had agreed that the strait should be open and that Xi made clear China’s opposition to the militarisation of the waterway and any effort to charge a toll for its use, as Iran has threatened to do.
Trump said Xi also promised not to send Iran military equipment. “He said he’s not going to give military equipment, that’s a big statement,” Trump said on “Hannity”.
Xi also expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s future dependence on the strait, the White House readout of the talks said.
DIPLOMACY ON HOLD
Trump is keen to elicit Chinese support to end a war that has become an electoral liability as it drags on towards key U.S. midterm elections in November. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Iran hard or end support for its military, given its value as a strategic counterweight to the U.S.
In an interview with CNBC from Beijing on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed China would “do what they can” to help open the strait, something “very much in their interest.” Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the waterway.
But diplomacy has been on hold since last week when Iran and the U.S. each rejected the other’s most recent proposals.
In the latest incidents in the strait, an Indian cargo vessel carrying livestock from Africa to the United Arab Emirates was sunk on Wednesday in waters off the coast of Oman. India condemned the attack and said all 14 crew members had been rescued.
Vanguard, a British maritime security advisory firm, said the vessel was believed to have been hit by a missile or drone which caused an explosion.
Separately, British maritime security agency UKMTO reported on Thursday that “unauthorised personnel” had boarded a ship anchored off the coast of the UAE port of Fujairah, and were steering it towards Iran.
Vanguard said a company security officer had reported that “the vessel was taken by Iranian personnel while at anchor.”
Fujairah is the UAE’s sole oil port on the Gulf of Oman, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, and enables some shipments to reach markets without passing through the chokepoint.
LEBANON TALKS
Thousands of Iranians were killed in the U.S. and Israeli air strikes in the first weeks of the war, and thousands more have been killed in Lebanon since the war re-ignited fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials on Thursday in Washington were productive and positive, according to a senior State Department official, who said they were set to continue on Friday.
Trump said his aims in starting the war were to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, end its ability to attack neighbours and make it easier for Iranians to overthrow their government.
A senior U.S. admiral told a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbours and U.S. regional interests had been “significantly degraded”.
But Admiral Brad Cooper declined to directly address reports by Reuters and other news organisations that Iran had retained significant missile and drone capabilities.
Iran’s rulers, who used force to put down anti-government protests at the start of the year, have faced no organised opposition since the war began. And their grip on the strait has given them additional leverage in negotiations.
Iran is seeking the lifting of sanctions, reparations for war damage and acknowledgment of its control over the strait.
(Reporting by Reuters Newsrooms, Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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