China, Iran foreign ministers meet amid tensions

BEIJING— Iran’s foreign minister praised his country’s relations with China during talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing amid heightened tensions and efforts by Tehran to keep its world markets open following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Mohammad Javad Zarif met Friday with Wang Yi, whose country has been a major customer for Iranian oil, at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse.

Wang told Zarif during the meeting that China hopes the Iran nuclear deal can be “fully implemented.”

The Chinese foreign minister pledged to maintain the nuclear deal and work with Iran to eliminate “complicated disturbing factors,” Xinhua said.

Along with ratcheting-up pressure on the Islamic Republic, Washington is engaged in a tariff battle with China.

President Donald Trump addressed the tensions with Tehran on Friday.

“With all of the Fake and Made Up News out there,” Trump wrote Friday on Twitter, “Iran can have no idea what is actually going on.”

Later, in a speech to real estate agents, Trump said, “It’s probably a good thing because they’re saying, ‘Man, I don’t know where these people are coming from,’ right?”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-calif., said Iran poses a threat to the West and endorsed the administration’s warning to Iran that any attack on U.S. forces “would be disastrous” for Iran.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its battle group, whose accelerated deployment triggered concern in some quarters about a drift toward conflict with Iran, by Friday had reached the waters of the Arabian Sea without incident, U.S. defense officials said.

On Friday, an official with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned that Iranian missiles can “easily reach warships” in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East.