President Donald Trump said on July 24 that neither China nor Russia were participating in the war with Iran and that both countries would not provide weapons to Iran.
Trump’s comments came after the Department of War was questioned on Tuesday regarding potential support for Iran from Russia and China. The United States and Iran have continued to exchange strikes after a memorandum of understanding, which temporarily paused the conflict, collapsed earlier this month.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping told him during a meeting in May that he “would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He added that the commitment to not provide weapons to Iran also included Chinese companies.
“Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, I am doing him very big favors, also,” Trump said.
The president also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that he would not sell weapons to Iran. Trump said Putin understood that the United States has sold weapons to NATO member countries, not to Ukraine. “They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea,” Trump said.
Trump said that both China and Russia agreeing not to sell or provide weapons to Iran during the U.S. military operation against the regime showed that they were not involved in the war.
“Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating,” he said in his post on Friday. “If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was asked whether Russia and China were helping Iran while testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21. He responded by saying that there have been attempts at “adversary alignment.” However, he told the committee that the “depth and extent of it ought to remain classified.”
“But there are ways in which both of those countries are, at different levels, enabling some of the things Iran is doing,” Hegseth added.
During the hearing, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the committee, “I’d rather not opine on the specifics because that would divulge what we know, and I never want the adversary to know what I know; I just want to know it.”
Caine previously indicated that the Russian government was assisting the Iranian regime. During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in April, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Ala.), the committee’s chairman, asked Caine whether there was any question Russia was “taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran.”
“I think there’s actions and activities. [I’m] mindful of the hearing room we’re in, but there’s, there’s, there’s definitely some action there,” Caine said.
The United States previously sanctioned companies and individuals in both China and Russia for helping Iran purchase weapons. In June, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against multiple entities, including Chinese companies, that helped Iran obtain weapons.
“Through Economic Fury, the Treasury Department is disrupting the foreign procurement networks that support the Iranian military’s efforts to acquire weapons,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
