President Trump says two of Iran’s most powerful potential patrons gave him the same private assurance—and he has now put both men on public notice.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin each promised that their countries would stay out of one crucial part of Iran’s war effort, according to the president.
The promise: no weapons for Tehran.
President Trump said Xi made his pledge during their recent meeting in Beijing. He said the commitment covered weapons supplied directly by China as well as arms sold through Chinese companies.
Putin gave him a separate assurance that Russia would not sell weapons to Iran, the president said.
Trump added that he takes both leaders at their word. Then he attached a warning that could scarcely be clearer: joining Iran’s war effort would be “very bad for them” and against their interests.
The CBS News live account records the president repeating those assurances in the Oval Office on Friday. When a reporter raised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assessment that China and Russia were enabling Iran at different levels, Trump said he did not know that they were enabling Tehran.
He answered that Xi had told him China would not participate and Putin had said the same about Russia. Trump then gave his bottom line in three words: “I trust them.”
The president did leave room for limited activity around the edges. He acknowledged that China and Russia have long relationships with Iran and said there could be some things they do, while adding that any help so far had not been major.
CBS also detailed earlier American assessments involving Russian intelligence and possible Chinese radar, satellite or other support. Those allegations reach beyond the narrower promise Trump described, which concerned giving or selling weapons to Iran.
The video below captures the Oval Office exchange itself. Its written caption offers an opinion about the answer; the footage is the relevant record.
Unbelievable. Watch Trump completely buy the word of Xi and putin over his own administration, claiming Russia and China aren't enabling Iran because they pinky-swore they wouldn't.
Reporter: “And you said today that Russia and China are not helping. Earlier this week, the war… pic.twitter.com/Oh70l7SWYS
— Yasmina (@yasminalombaert) July 24, 2026
For Iran, the stakes are enormous.
China and Russia possess the weapons, industrial capacity and diplomatic weight Tehran would desperately want behind it. A genuine refusal by both powers to open their arsenals would deny Iran two of the most consequential military lifelines available.
The pledge from Xi also fits a broader conversation already underway between Washington and Beijing.
A May 17 White House fact sheet says President Trump and Xi discussed Iran during the president’s Beijing visit. The two leaders agreed that Iran cannot be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened to all commercial shipping.
That meeting covered a much wider economic package, including trade, agriculture, energy and critical minerals. Iran nevertheless earned its own place in the official list of agreements, showing that the crisis was already a direct subject between the two presidents.
The no-weapons assurance described Friday goes a significant step further than the public summit language. It would turn a shared statement about nuclear proliferation and shipping into a concrete limit on Chinese military support for Tehran.
Xi’s inclusion of Chinese companies is especially consequential because state policy can be undermined through intermediaries, component suppliers or firms operating at arm’s length. Trump’s account places responsibility for those channels directly on the Chinese leader.
The military picture may be moving toward a temporary pause, though the pressure campaign remains in place.
The strikes may have paused, but President Trump says the pressure on Iran hasn't.
After 13 consecutive nights of U.S. strikes, CENTCOM announced no new attacks Friday night as diplomatic talks continue.
Still, Trump made clear the military is ready to escalate if negotiations… pic.twitter.com/uQXatMgVvq
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 25, 2026
Washington is also squeezing the foreign networks that keep Iran supplied and financed.
A May 19 release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury describes sanctions aimed at Iran’s weapons procurement, oil sales, shadow banking and overseas support structure. The targets included companies and facilitators based in China and Hong Kong, alongside networks operating across several other countries.
Treasury said those systems help Tehran obtain sensitive technology, move oil revenue and finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The pressure campaign is designed to make foreign firms and financial intermediaries pay a price for keeping those channels open.
That enforcement backdrop gives Trump leverage as he tests the promises from Xi and Putin. Both leaders now know that the United States is watching direct arms transfers and the commercial networks capable of disguising them.
It also explains why the wording of the assurances deserves close attention. A ban on weapons sales would be a major constraint, while intelligence, components, finance, energy trade and diplomatic cover remain separate questions that require continued scrutiny.
Neither Beijing nor Moscow had publicly confirmed the specific promises by Saturday morning. For now, Americans have President Trump’s account of what the two leaders told him face to face.
If Xi and Putin keep their word, Iran will face the next phase of this confrontation without fresh Chinese or Russian weapons.
If either man breaks it, President Trump has already made sure the world knows there was a promise—and a warning.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
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