WASHINGTON (The Thursday Times) — US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with President Donald Trump’s support, has asked China to use its influence with Iran to help end the war, and Beijing has delivered that message to Tehran, according to The Washington Post, which cited a knowledgeable US official.
The approach opens another line to Iran alongside the indirect talks led by Vice President JD Vance, who for the past two weeks has been speaking almost daily to Field Marshal Asim Munir and to Qatar’s prime minister about a new ceasefire and a return to nuclear negotiations. Pakistani and Qatari mediators have discussed a working-level technical meeting between the United States and Iran, which has not yet taken place.
Neither Washington nor Beijing has commented publicly on the request.
China’s part: Beijing has already been pressing for talks. On Monday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Iran and Saudi Arabia to choose talks over war, telling an Iranian security official that “all parties should, in a spirit of reason and pragmatism, focus on a political solution rather than once again resorting to armed conflict”. China said its Middle East envoy would visit Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia this month on what it called shuttle diplomacy.
Trump asked President Xi Jinping for help on Iran when they met in Washington in September, and Xi told him privately that he agrees Iran should never have a nuclear weapon, the official said. The issue is expected to come up again when the two leaders meet in Shenzhen on November 18, a summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin will also attend and which Beijing wants to be “well scripted”, according to the official.
What Tehran wants: “Iranian leaders are waiting to see whether this election has really changed American behavior,” Ali Al Thawadi, the Qatari official who has been acting as the White House’s intermediary with Tehran, told the paper. “They saw Vance’s letter as a gesture of respect, and they appreciated that Vance said the war was a mistake. Now they would like the United States to follow through on an issue that seemingly brings Democrats and Republicans together. Like America’s allies in Europe and the Gulf, the Iranian leaders want to be sure that the U.S. is reliable.”
Bessent’s department is also the one that enforces American sanctions on Iran, including penalties announced this week against companies accused of helping Tehran move its oil, and Iran has demanded the lifting of recent sanctions as one of its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump told reporters on Friday that Washington was “talking to” Iran. US officials say he is willing for now to let diplomacy run, though the military is ready to resume strikes at short notice.
