US Vice President Vance Says China Responsive to Requests Regarding Iran Sanctions

WASHINGTON, September 4. /TASS/. Chinese authorities have responded to a number of requests regarding Washington’s recently declared ‘economic war’ on Iran, US Vice President JD Vance has told reporters.

When asked whether US President Donald Trump directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to bar Chinese banks from offering financial services to Iran, Vance replied: "We've certainly had a number of conversations with the Chinese, and frankly, I think the Chinese have been responsive to some of the requests that we've made. I actually don't know whether the president has spoken directly to [President] Xi, but we will get an answer for you and follow up."

Speaking about isolation of Iran, Vance said that, in his opinion, China is "willing to play ball here, and we all know this."

"They are, in that way, I think, willing to be a little bit more responsible. Again, I'm not saying they're doing everything that we've asked them to do, but I think that the PRC has been much more responsible, certainly than the Iranians, and much more responsible than a couple of other nations as well," the US vice president continued.

"But it's not just the PRC. If you look at Turkey, if you look at Azerbaijan, if you look at UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, a lot of the Gulf Arab coalition. If you look all across the world, we're actually seeing a lot of countries. Sometimes they're not willing to say so publicly, but privately they're doing a lot of good things to help us ensure that the Iranians pay a penalty for firing at commercial shipping," he said.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson Huang Ling said on Thursday the Chinese government will resist US sanctions for trade with Iran. She reiterated Beijing’s "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" to unilateral sanctions that are not authorized by the UN Security Council and have no basis in international law.