US forces intercepted ‘gift from China’ to Iran, Donald Trump says

US president says Beijing had sent something ‘that wasn’t very nice’ even though he thought he had an ‘understanding’ with Xi Jinping

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that American forces had intercepted a “gift from China” to Iran.

Speaking ahead of the expiry of the current two-week ceasefire on Wednesday, Trump told CNBC that Tehran had “probably done a little bit of restocking” and implied that Beijing had been helping its efforts.

He added: “We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice, a gift from China.”

The claim was first made by former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Trump then injected a note of doubt, saying: “Perhaps, I don’t know, but I was a little surprised … but I thought I had an understanding with President Xi [Jinping], but that’s all right. That’s the way war goes.”

China’s foreign ministry denied the allegation.

“To my knowledge, this is a foreign-flagged container ship. China opposes any malicious links and hype,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Haley made the allegation about the ship in a social media post, saying it had “refused repeated orders to stop”.