Netanyahu agreed US should press Iran to cut oil sales to China - report

Trump and Netanyahu pledge coordinated effort to curb Iran’s oil exports to China, aiming to tighten economic pressure as nuclear talks continue. Reducing China-bound oil sales could significantly cut Tehran’s revenue.

Reuters

February 15, 2026

Netanyahu agreed US should press Iran to cut oil sales to China - report

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stand at the Knesset on the day Trump addresses it, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed at a White House meeting on Wednesday that the U.S. would work to reduce Iran's oil exports to China, Axios reported, citing two U.S. officials briefed on the issue.

"We agreed that we will go full force with maximum pressure against Iran, for example, regarding Iranian oil sales to China," Axios reported on Saturday, quoting a senior U.S. official.

China accounts for more than 80% of Iran's oil exports. Any reduction in that trade would mean lower oil revenue for Iran.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats held nuclear talks through Omani mediators last week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after the U.S. president positioned a naval flotilla in the region as the American military prepares for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran.

-Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Sergio Non and Diane Craft/Reuters