# Why China’s promise of no arms to Iran will do little to end the war Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/why-china-s-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end-the-war Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/why-china-s-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end-the-war.md Podcast: [Iran: The Latest](https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846) Published: 2026-05-15T16:04:21+00:00 Episode link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/15/why-chinas-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end/ Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/e/6a0743b7d98ee73f633560b2/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/iran-the-latest-6656846/episodes/why-china-s-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end-the-war Duration seconds: 2170 ## Resource Donald Trump ended his high stakes trip to China claiming Xi Jinping had promised not to arm Iran, wanted the Strait of Hormuz open, and backed his goal of preventing Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.  But does any of that amount to a change in Chinese policy, and will it do anything to bring the frozen but still rumbling conflict to a close?  Sophia Yan speaks to Andrea Ghiselli, a China-Iran expert who has spent the war in China, about how the conflict is perceived in Beijing. Plus, Roland Oliphant summarises the latest news from the Middle East, including renewed drone strikes in Iraq. Highlights: Trump says that Xi has pledged no military equipment to Iran Cautious optimism in Lebanon as talks with Israel progress CONTRIBUTORS: Roland Oliphant, co-host and chief foreign affairs analyst @RolandOliphant Sophia Yan, senior foreign correspondent, @sophia_yan  Andrea Ghiselli, China-ME expert and lecturer at the University of Exeter @AGhiselliChina Producer: Peter Shevlin Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells ► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor ► EMAIL US: Contact the team on battlelines@telegraph.co.uk  ► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/iran-the-latest-6656846/episodes/why-china-s-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end-the-war/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/why-china-s-promise-of-no-arms-to-iran-will-do-little-to-end-the-war.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.