Trump says he believes China got Iran to come to the negotiating table

Iranian officials cited by NYT also say Beijing stepped in at last minute amid concern of economic fallout, as deadline loomed for Trump’s threats to strike crucial infrastructure

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he believed China had persuaded Iran to negotiate, after he announced a two-week halt in the bombing of Iran in return for its reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“I hear yes. Yes they were,” Trump told AFP when asked if Beijing was involved in getting its key ally Tehran to negotiate shortly before the deadline he had set for bombing key infrastructure in Iran.

Citing three Iranian officials, The New York Times also said Iran accepted the Pakistani-mediated ceasefire following a last-minute intervention by China, which asked Iran “to show flexibility and defuse tensions” amid concern of economic fallout.

The officials claimed the truce was approved by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly wounded at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, and has yet to be seen in public since being appointed to replace his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strike.

Beijing is a close partner of Tehran and the main buyer of Iranian oil, most of which passes through the Strait of Hormuz. But it also has strong economic ties to the Gulf countries and has repeatedly criticized Iran’s attacks on them during the war with Israel and the US.

Trump is expected to travel to Beijing in mid-May to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in a crucial summit between the two superpowers. The trip was originally scheduled for early April, but Trump postponed it, saying he had to stay in Washington to oversee the Iran war.

Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire overnight came some 90 minutes before the deadline he had set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. He had threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants if it failed to open the vital waterway, and said as the deadline neared that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”

Iran has launched missile and drone strikes across the region and effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign on the Islamic Republic on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Traffic in the Strait — through which about a fifth of the world’s oil travels in peacetime — has dropped by some 90%, sending energy prices soaring worldwide.