For weeks leading up to United States President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, his administration has been pressing China to lean on Iran amid negotiations aimed at reaching a peace deal between Washington and Tehran.Yet as Trump departed from Beijing on Friday afternoon on board Air Force One after a little more than 40 hours in the Chinese capital and a series of meetings with President Xi Jinping, there was little evidence that the world’s two most powerful nations had forged any agreement on how to end the war on Iran.Meanwhile, the war itself is now in its 77th day.Here is what both sides said on the war during the Trump-Xi summit, how they differed, and where that leaves efforts to end the conflict in the Middle East.The big picture: What did China say about the war?The war on Iran began on February 28 when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran amid talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran hit back the same day with missile and drone attacks across the region, including targets in Israel as well as US military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.The Trump administration has insisted that the war was justified, and aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon — even though Tehran has repeatedly publicly said that it has no intention of building one.But China, which has previously also condemned the war, doubled …
