US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that American forces had intercepted a “gift from China” to Iran.
Speaking ahead of the expiry of the current two-week ceasefire on Wednesday, Trump told CNBC that Tehran had “probably done a little bit of restocking” and implied that Beijing had been helping its efforts.
He added: “We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice, a gift from China.”
The claim was first made by former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Trump then injected a note of doubt, saying: “Perhaps, I don’t know, but I was a little surprised … but I thought I had an understanding with President Xi [Jinping], but that’s all right. That’s the way war goes.”
China’s foreign ministry denied the allegation.
“To my knowledge, this is a foreign-flagged container ship. China opposes any malicious links and hype,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
Haley made the allegation about the ship in a social media post, saying it had “refused repeated orders to stop”.