United States President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will have a long talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the war in Iran during his upcoming trip to China, but added that he doesn’t think he needs Xi’s help.
“I don’t think we need help with Iran. We’re going to win one way or another, peacefully or not,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for China.
The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies will hold their first face-to-face talks in more than six months as they try to stabilize ties strained over trade, the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran and other areas of disagreement.
Trump is heading to China amid an unresolved war with Iran, with diplomatic talks to end it at an impasse. Beijing maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil exports.
Trump has leaned on China to use its influence to pressure Tehran into making a deal with Washington and ending the conflict that began when the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in late February.
The Republican president is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, ahead of negotiations scheduled for Thursday and Friday. It will be his first trip to China since 2017.
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Trump later told reporters: “We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control.”
