Donald Trump thanks Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for staying neutral on Iran

President Donald Trump on Wednesday publicly thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for remaining neutral during the recent conflict with Iran saying both leaders could have made the situation significantly more difficult for the United StatesAt a press conference after the G7 summit in France Trump said he personally urged Xi not to provide military assistance to Tehran during the conflict and expressed appreciation for Beijings responseldquoI want to thank China President Xirdquo Trump saidldquoI was with him and he stayed neutral totally neutral and I appreciate itrdquoTrump said he had spoken directly with the Chinese leader about military equipment that could have strengthened Irans defencesldquoI had a long talk with himrdquo Trump saidldquoI said I would really appreciate your not giving or selling any of that stuff to IranrdquoAccording to Trump Beijing largely complied with the requestldquoFor the most part he didntrdquo Trump saidThe President also singled out Russian President Vladimir PutinldquoAnd I want to thank Vladimir Putin he was very neutralrdquo Trump saidldquoThey could have made it much more difficult for usrdquoTrumps remarks offered a rare public acknowledgement of cooperation or at least noninterference by Washingtons two principal strategic rivals during a major international crisisThe comments came as Trump defended the agreement reached with Iran and argued that the military campaign had achieved its objectives without triggering a wider regional conflictThe President said Iran had suffered extensive damage and would require years to rebuildldquoTheyve had much more than 1 trillion worth of damage donerdquo Trump saidldquoTheyll be 15 to 20 years to rebuild what they have right nowrdquoTrump argued that any future economic benefits for Tehran would depend on its compliance with the agreementldquoThey have to behave themselvesrdquo he said ldquoIf theyre not behaving they get hit againrdquoThe President also defended provisions allowing the eventual release of frozen Iranian assets saying the funds belonged to Iran and that permanently confiscating them would undermine confidence in the US financial systemldquoWe have their moneyrdquo Trump said ldquoIts not our money its their moneyrdquoldquoAt a certain point in time I guess were going to have to give it backrdquoTrump said that retaining foreign assets indefinitely would discourage international confidence in the US dollarldquoIf you do that you really dont have a systemrdquo he saidThe President rejected criticism that the agreement represented a concession to Tehran arguing instead that Iran had entered negotiations from a position of weakness following military losses and economic pressureldquoWell look here they lost militarilyrdquo Trump saidHe maintained that continued military operations would have risked disruption to global energy markets and commercial shipping through the Strait of HormuzldquoIf we keep bombing those ships wont be goingrdquo Trump saidThe comments highlighted the broader international dimension of the Iran conflict which raised concerns about possible involvement by major powers including China and Russia because of their longstanding political and economic ties with TehranThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever