Officials said they did not believe China’s Government had formally approved weapons sales to Tehran, but that those shipments were unlikely to have taken place without the knowledge of senior figures.
The Trump Administration has sent contradictory signals on whether it would approach Xi to cut off support for Iran and weaken the regime.
American officials had earlier expected Trump to push his Chinese counterpart on cutting off arms sales.
However, the US President quickly dismissed suggestions that the US needed help against Iran, insisting that “every single element of their war machine” had been destroyed.
Despite such claims, recent reports suggest otherwise.
A CIA analysis, first reported by the Washington Post, concluded that 70% of Iran’s ballistic missiles and 75% of its mobile launchers had survived US-Israeli strikes.
Tehran is also said to have reopened most of its underground storage facilities, repaired damaged missiles and assembled new ones.
Iran has restored access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it has along the Strait of Hormuz, allowing it to menace tankers seeking to head through the critical oil passage, the New York Times reported yesterday.
Iran has been relatively tight-lipped on support from Beijing, although Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, said the regime had received “military co-operation” from Russia and China in March.
After reports about the shipments of Manpads in mid-April, Trump said he had asked Xi to stop weapons transfers.
Yesterday, the US Treasury sanctioned several Chinese companies it claimed had sought to supply weapons, including Manpads, to Iran, in addition to raw materials for its defence industry.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
