Trump Trusts Putin, Xi on No Arms Supply to Iran Amid US Allegations

WASHINGTON, July 24. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said he trusts Russian head of state Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping when they say Russia and China are not supplying weapons to Iran. "I will tell you that President Xi said he will not partake, and President Putin said the same thing. <...> I trust them," Trump told reporters at the White House, responding to allegations in some US circles that Moscow and Beijing could provide military assistance to Tehran. Asked to comment on Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s recent remarks that Russia and China were enabling Iran, Trump said: "Do they? They've had a long-term relationship. There could be some things you do, but thus far, at least, it has not been major. I don't think they’d want to have me disappointed." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after ASEAN events in the Philippines on July 22 that Moscow wanted the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz to end and was not supplying weapons to Iran.