US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that he personally persuaded Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin not to enter the war on Iran’s side, saying his direct appeals to each leader kept a broader regional conflict at bay.
Trump made the remarks at the White House during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, responding to a question from a Turkish journalist about a possible visit to Ankara, the Israeli news outlet Ynet News reported.
“I like him — he’s my friend and he did not get involved in the war against Iran,” Trump said of Erdoğan. “He was one of the people who could have gotten involved on the side of Iran — he’s not a huge fan of Israel. I asked him not to get involved and he stayed out.”
Trump also credited Xi and Putin. “You know who was terrific? President Xi of China. He could have gotten involved. He gets half his oil from that region. I asked him, please don’t get involved. He didn’t. We did a good job.” He added that Putin, despite other preoccupations, had also stayed out of the conflict.
Trump described his diplomatic outreach as key to preventing the war from escalating into a wider regional conflict. His basis for the assertion that Turkey was on the verge of intervening on Iran’s behalf was not made clear, Ynet News reported.
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