“I’m not asking for any favors because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors,” US President Donald Trump says.
US President Donald Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has done so he agreed Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, although China gave no indication that it would.
Returning from Beijing on Friday, May 15, after two days of talks with Xi, Trump said he was considering whether to lift US sanctions on Chinese oil companies buying Iranian oil. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
“I’m not asking for any favors because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors,” Trump said when asked by an Air Force One reporter if Xi had made a firm commitment to pressure the Iranians to reopen the tunnel.
Xi did not discuss his talks with Trump on Iran, although China’s foreign ministry criticized the war, calling it a conflict “that should never have happened, it has no reason to continue.”
‘We want the roads to be opened’
Iran has closed the sea channel, which carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the US and Israel launched attacks on February 28. The shipping disruption has caused the largest oil supply crisis in history, driving up oil prices.
Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the national security committee of the Iranian Parliament, said on Saturday, May 16, that Tehran has prepared a system to control traffic through the strait on a special route that will be launched soon.
Azizi said that only commercial ships and parties cooperating with Iran will benefit, and that fees will be collected for special services provided under the procedure.
Thousands of Iranians were killed in US and Israeli airstrikes. Thousands more have been killed in Lebanon in fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, although Israel and Lebanon agreed on Friday to extend a 45-day ceasefire that has eased the conflict there.
The US stopped its attacks last month but began to block ports. As of Saturday, 78 commercial vessels had been diverted and four disabled to ensure compliance with the blockade, the US military said.
Tehran, which launched attacks on Israel, US bases and Gulf states after the war began, has said it will not open the strait until the US ends its blockade. Trump has threatened to resume attacks if Iran does not accept the deal.
“We don’t want them to have nuclear weapons, we want the channels to be opened,” Trump said in Beijing, alongside Xi.
Iran, which has long denied it has any intention of developing a nuclear weapon, has refused to halt nuclear research or give up its hidden stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran has received a message from the United States indicating that Washington is ready to continue negotiations.
Pakistan has been mediating between Washington and Tehran. Iran’s Nournews news agency said Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni had “in-depth” talks with his visiting Pakistani counterpart about Iran-Pakistan relations and the prospect of resuming peace talks, but gave no details.
Trump losing patience
Trump, who told Fox News’ “Hannity” in an interview that aired Thursday that he was losing patience with Iran, said Tehran “has to make a deal.”
Even as the turmoil continued to shock the global economy, Iran was expected to reopen its stock market on Tuesday after a halt since the start of US and Israeli airstrikes, Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted a senior official as saying.
“The suspension of stock market operations since the start of the war was aimed at protecting shareholders’ assets, preventing panic-driven trading and allowing for greater price transparency,” said Hamid Yari, deputy administrator at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Talks to end the war have stalled since last week when Iran and the US each rejected the other’s latest proposals.
Araqchi said on Friday that Iran would welcome China’s views, adding that Tehran is trying to make room for diplomacy but does not trust the United States, which has cut short previous rounds of talks by launching airstrikes.
When the United States and Israel launched their attacks against Iran, they said one of their goals was to weaken the regime so that the Iranians could overthrow the government.
There has been little sign of organized opposition in Iran during the war, and rights groups say the government has cracked down on its opponents.
An Iranian court said Saturday that 39 people had been executed for collaborating with Israeli or US intelligence agencies, or participating in “terrorism” or armed conflict, since the war began, the court’s Mizan news agency reported.
It said 36 “middle-level” dissidents received long prison terms. – Rappler.com
