U.S. intelligence reportedly indicates China is looking to send shipments of weapons to Iran amid the Middle Eastern country’s conflict with the United States.
Beijing is delivering new air defense systems to Iran within the next few weeks and is working to route the shipments through third countries to mask their true origin, according to CNN. If true, the development would constitute a provocative statement by Beijing just weeks ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and would mark a significant escalation of support to Iran.
The systems Beijing is preparing to transfer are shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems known as MANPADs, which posed an asymmetric threat to the U.S. military during its war with Iran. The conflict drew to a quasi-end with a temporary ceasefire last week, one that China was involved in helping broker.
Although China backed the ceasefire, U.S. intelligence now appears to indicate it is helping Iran rearm against the U.S. before the two-week truce draws to a close.
“If China does that, China is gonna have big problems,” Trump told reporters on Saturday afternoon, when pressed on the report.
The U.S. is working to bring the war to a permanent end. But a high-level delegation from Washington that traveled to the Middle East failed to make significant progress in peace talks over the past few days. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Vice President JD Vance headed back to the U.S. after saying Saturday that the negotiations in Pakistan, with a third-party mediator, ended with Iran refusing to budge on its nuclear program.
“The simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term?” Vance said. “We haven’t seen that yet. We hope that we will.”
Long-standing concerns over Iran’s nuclear program were one of the primary reasons the U.S. and Israel launched the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
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Trump and Israel started the joint military campaign after the Iranian leadership told the U.S. that it had enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs within 10 days, according to the president’s team.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment but did not receive a reply.