{"id":386434,"date":"2026-04-11T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/386434\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:42:10","slug":"exclusive-us-intelligence-indicates-china-is-preparing-weapons-shipment-to-iran-amid-fragile-ceasefire-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/386434\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: US intelligence indicates China is preparing weapons shipment to Iran amid fragile ceasefire, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n US intelligence indicates that\u202fChina is\u202fpreparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran<\/a>\u202fwithin the next few weeks,\u202faccording to three\u202fpeople familiar with recent intelligence assessments.\n <\/p>\n

\n It would be a provocative move considering Beijing said it helped broker the fragile ceasefire agreement<\/a> that paused the war between Iran and the US earlier this week. President Donald Trump is also set to visit China early next month for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.\n <\/p>\n

\n The intelligence also underscores how Iran may be using the ceasefire as an opportunity to replenish certain weapons systems with the help of key foreign partners.\n <\/p>\n

\n Two of the sources told CNN there are indications that\u202fBeijing is working to route\u202fthe shipments\u202fthrough third countries to\u202fmask their true origin.\n <\/p>\n

\n The systems Beijing is preparing to transfer are shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems known as MANPADs, the sources said, which\u202fposed an asymmetric threat\u202fto\u202flow-flying\u202fUS military\u202faircraft throughout the course of the five-week war and could again if the ceasefire falls apart.\n <\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said, \u201cChina has never provided weapons to any party to the conflict; the information in question is untrue.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs a responsible major country, China consistently fulfills its international obligations. We urge the U.S. side to refrain from making baseless allegations, maliciously drawing connections, and engaging in sensationalism; we hope that relevant parties will do more to help de-escalate tensions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier this week, an embassy spokesperson told CNN that since the\u202fUS-Israel-Iran war\u202fbegan Beijing\u202fhad \u201cbeen working to help bring about a ceasefire and end to the conflict.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump indicated during a press conference on Monday that the F-15\u202ffighter jet shot down<\/a> over Iran last week was hit by a\u202f\u201chandheld\u202fshoulder missile, [a] heat-seeking\u202fmissile,\u201d and Iran said it had used a \u201cnew\u201d air defense system to hit the jet without providing more details. It\u2019s unclear if that system was Chinese manufactured.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shipping MANPADS to Iran\u202fwould mark an escalation in China\u2019s support for\u202fthe\u202fcountry\u202fsince the US\u202fand Israel launched\u202ftheir\u202fjoint military\u202fcampaign in\u202fFebruary.\n <\/p>\n

\n Chinese companies\u202fhave continued to sell the Iranians sanctioned dual-use technology that enables the Iran to keep building weapons and enhance its navigation systems, sources said, but\u202fthe\u202fChinese government\u202fdirectly transferring weapons systems would mark a new level of\u202fassistance.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump is\u202fexpected to meet with Xi next month in Beijing, and the White House said on Wednesday that high-level talks had taken place between the US and\u202fChina\u202fas Iran ceasefire negotiations played out\u202fearlier this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the sources familiar with the intelligence said China sees no real strategic value in overtly entering the conflict and trying to protect Iran against the US and Israel, which they know would be unwinnable. Instead, Beijing is trying to position itself as a continued friend to Iran \u2014 whose oil it heavily depends upon \u2014 while\u202fremaining\u202foutwardly neutral so they can\u202fmaintain\u202fdeniability after the war is over.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sources said the Chinese could also make the argument that air defense systems are defensive rather than offensive in nature, differentiating their support from that of Russia. Moscow has\u202fbeen providing support to the Iranian regime throughout the course of the war in the form of intelligence sharing that has helped Iran proactively target US troops and assets in the Middle East, CNN has reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n Iran has\u202flong had\u202festablished\u202fmilitary\u202fand economic\u202frelationships with both China and Russia.\u202fIran\u202fhas\u202faided Russia extensively in its war on Ukraine through the provision of Shahed\u202fdrones and\u202falso sells China the bulk of its sanctioned oil.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US intelligence indicates that\u202fChina is\u202fpreparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran\u202fwithin the next few weeks,\u202faccording to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-386434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}