Trump’s World Cup czar calls early entry for Iran team a ‘goodwill gesture’

China and Russia have both given support to Iran during the war that the United States and Israel started. But President Trump has made no mention of that.

Listen

· 5:25 min

President Trump has referred to the leaders Xi Jinping of China, left, and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as his friends. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times, Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Edward Wong

Edward Wong reported from Beijing on President Trump’s visit there last month. He wrote a book on China after reporting there nearly a decade. He reported on the Iraq war before that.

June 15, 2026 Updated 2:56 p.m. ET

When President Trump gave thanks to those who had helped him reach an initial cease-fire agreement with Iran, he praised two world leaders he has called his friends — Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The leaders, he said, had aided the Americans in sealing the deal with the Iranians, or at least had helped set the conditions by not sending oil and gas tankers or other commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz to compromise a U.S. naval blockade aimed at pressuring Iran.

“He was a total gentleman,” the American president said of Mr. Xi in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, as he was celebrating his 80th birthday with a dinner and an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on the South Lawn of the White House. “He didn’t send a tanker, along with 20 destroyers on each side of it, to try and break up the blockade.”

The White House did not reply a request for comment on Monday on what Mr. Trump meant when he said Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin had helped the Americans and Iranians reach the initial agreement. The State Department referred questions to the White House. The Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington did not answer requests for comment.

In recent months, Mr. Trump has embraced China as a partner. He had to retreat from a trade war with the country last year after retaliation by the Chinese government, and he subsequently praised Mr. Xi as a tough negotiator.

He has also been trying to improve relations with Moscow, though Mr. Putin has resisted the American president’s efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to accept a settlement to end the full-scale Russian invasion that began in 2022. Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin spoke by phone on Sunday.

Mr. Trump flew to Beijing last month for a summit and a state banquet hosted by Mr. Xi, the world’s most powerful autocrat. The two talked about trade, Taiwan and the war against Iran. Mr. Trump left gushing about Mr. Xi and said the two superpowers would form a “G2” partnership. “It’s the two great countries,” he told Fox News .

China is Iran’s most powerful partner and the biggest buyer of oil from the country. China has worked in its own interests and acted with caution during the war. It has prodded Iran to continue negotiating with the United States, even when the mediated talks seemed to flag.

At the same time, some Chinese companies have tried sending weapons to Iran , included shoulder-fired missiles, known as MANPADS, the U.S. State Department said. Last week, the State and Treasury Departments announced sanctions against Chinese-run or Chinese-linked companies that they said were trying to send weapons to Iran.

The State Department list included Armory Alliance, which the agency said is a Belarus-based entity that has “acted as an intermediary between China-based companies and Iran.”

The group, it said, “has been involved in facilitating the purchase of hundreds of man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) and their shipment from China to Iran, including attempting to route the shipments through third-party countries and obfuscating their origin and true end user.”

Mr. Trump has not acknowledged those actions by Chinese companies.

The moves do not amount to deep support by China for Iran during the war, in contrast to the way China has supported Russia in its yearslong invasion of Ukraine by providing critical supplies to Russian defense companies and weapons makers.

Like China, Russia has been trying to position itself as a diplomatic back channel in the war. A partner of Iran, it has hosted Iranian diplomats in Moscow and spoken with American officials.

It has also given Iran targeting information useful for attacks on American bases in the Middle East, U.S. officials said. As with China, Mr. Trump has made no mention recently of this or other anti-American actions on Russia’s part.

China recently arrested an American citizen , U Min Zin, on the rare charge of spying, less than three weeks after Mr. Trump met with Mr. Xi in Beijing, The Times reported last Thursday. Around June 3, Mr. Min Zin, who studies Myanmar politics and foreign policy, disappeared in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. American diplomats visited him in a detention center on Friday. Mr. Trump has not publicly spoken about the arrest.

On Monday, Representative John Moolenaar, Republican of Michigan and the chairman of the House Select Committee on China, den…