By Susan Heavey and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) – Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in a letter not to give Iran weapons, and Xi responded that China was not supplying Tehran, the U.S. president told Fox Business Network in an interview that aired on Wednesday.
Trump, in the interview taped on Tuesday, did not say when the letters were exchanged. Last week, he threatened countries with an immediate 50% tariff if they supplied Iran with weapons.
“I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying that, essentially, he’s not doing that,” Trump told FBN’s “Mornings with Maria” program.
He also said he did not expect shifts in the global oil market over the war on Iran and changes in Venezuela to impact the dynamics of his planned meeting with Xi next month. “He’s somebody that needs oil. We don’t,” Trump said.
In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump also wrote that he was “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz and China was very happy about it.
“I am doing it for them, also – And the World,” Trump wrote, adding: “President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks.”
It was not immediately clear what Trump meant as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the president’s post.
Forty-five days after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed, effectively shutting in about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, transit through the waterway remains uncertain – even with the two-week ceasefire now in place. Traffic is at only a fraction of the 130-plus daily crossings seen before the war, sources said on Tuesday.
Trump said talks with Tehran on ending the war could resume this week, after they ended over the weekend without any agreement. But the U.S. has also enacted a blockade of shipping leaving Iranian ports that its military said on Wednesday has completely halted trade going in and out of the country by sea.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Hugh Lawson)
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