Secretary of State Marco Rubio said publicly ahead of the Trump-Xi summit that Washington hopes to convince Beijing “to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf,” according to Fox News. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post noted that Rubio ran ahead of Trump on the question.
After the summit, Rubio confirmed that while Trump raised Iran with Xi, he “didn’t ask him for anything.” Trump himself was more blunt: Pressed on whether Xi could help, he said, “I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” and added that the Iranians “are defeated militarily, and they’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job.”
