US President Donald Trump said that he had asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping not to provide weapons to Iran and that he had told him that he would not do so, Agence France-Presse reported. The American leader said this in an interview broadcast today on the "Fox Business Network" television channel, BTA reports.
"He responded to a letter that I had written to him because I had heard that China was providing weapons" of Iran, Trump explained to host Maria Bartiromo.
"I sent him a letter asking him not to do it, and he wrote me a letter basically saying he wasn't doing it", he added.
Donald Trump will visit Beijing on May 14 and 15. He was originally supposed to meet with Xi Jinping earlier, at the end of last month or the beginning of this one, but the visit was postponed because of the war in the Middle East.
The host asked the US president whether the impact on oil prices of the war in the Middle East, the US operation in Venezuela and the statements of the Trump administration on Cuba would change the tone of this meeting with Xi Jinping.
"I don't think so. He needs oil, not me. This is a person I get along very well with. "He sent me a very nice letter," Trump said.
Trump also said he had not received "any" objections from China or Saudi Arabia regarding his decision to block the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times published information from its investigative journalism today, according to which Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite in late 2024, which gave it new and greater capabilities to strike American military bases in the Middle East during the war with the United States and Israel.
The satellite of the rare export modification TEE-01B, designed and launched by the Chinese company "Earth I Co" (Earth Eye Co), was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after it was launched into orbit, the publication said, citing leaked Iranian military documents.
According to the newspaper, which cited lists of coordinates, satellite images and orbital analysis, Iranian military commanders directed the satellite to monitor important US military sites. The images were obtained in March before and after drone and missile attacks on these targets, the Financial Times said.
As part of the agreement, IRGC was given access to commercial ground stations operated by Emposat – a Beijing-based satellite and data management service provider with a global network covering Asia, Latin America and other regions.
The data shows that the satellite captured images of the "Prince Sultan" air base in Saudi Arabia on March 13, 14 and 15. On March 14, US President Donald Trump confirmed that US aircraft at the base had been hit. Five US Air Force tanker aircraft were damaged.
The satellite also monitored the "Muafak Salti" air base in Saudi Arabia. in Jordan and locations near the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, as well as the airport in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, at the time the KGIR said they were hit.
China's Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected the claims, calling them false, Reuters reported.
"Recently, some forces have been trying to manufacture rumors and maliciously associate them with China," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
"China firmly opposes such practices driven by ulterior motives," the statement added.
Reuters said it could not independently verify the information.
The White House, the CIA and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.