President Donald Trump said late Monday that he does not believe China and Russia are helping Iran “at all” in the war, pushing back on claims from his critics that the two powers are quietly backing Tehran. Moscow and Beijing, he wrote, have “too much to lose” if they enable Iran.
“If they are, it's at a very low level, but I don't believe they are at all. They have too much to lose, and we would know about it, and know about it very fast.”
Trump has kept both capitals on notice for months. In July, he said he trusted China and Russia not to help Tehran, but warned that if they did get involved, “it would be very bad for them.” He has described Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “neutral” during the war. Last month, when Xi visited Washington, Trump warned him directly against providing support to Iran and received assurances that China would not do so, according to the U.S. ambassador to China at the time.
The claims Trump was answering have been specific. Reports have alleged that China supplied Iran with shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers and helped Tehran find ways around sanctions on its oil sales. In September, a report said Iran acquired satellite images of a base in Jordan from Chinese entities before an attack that killed three U.S. troops there in July; Trump brushed that report aside at the time.
The United States and Iran have been at war since February 28, when U.S. and Israeli strikes hit Iran and Tehran answered with strikes on Israel and on Gulf states that host U.S. bases. Moscow and Beijing both keep close ties with Tehran: Russia has warned the war could set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, and Beijing has condemned Washington's attacks as a brazen violation of Iran's sovereignty. Neither has crossed into openly supplying Iran's war — and Trump's position is that his warnings are a reason why.
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