Trump racing against clock to avoid blundering major summit: analysis

President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week on May 14, with the two nations expected to discuss ways of stabilizing U.S.-China relations, but as the summit draws closer, “the more urgently Washington” races to “freeze the Iran crisis,” lest Trump arrive with a “weakened” hand, journalist Charbel Antoun argued Saturday in an op-ed published in The Hill.

“This is the paradox now shaping U.S. strategy: The harder Washington pushes for a rapid Iran resolution before May 14, the more it reveals urgency that expands Chinese leverage,” Antoun, whose reporting specializes in U.S. foreign policy, wrote.

“How Washington spends the next week will not end the crisis – but it will decide the terms on which America enters the Beijing summit. The summit will not resolve the Gulf standoff, but it will reveal which answer the U.S. has chosen: resolution or endurance. And in a moment when China’s influence, Iran’s leverage, and Saudi Arabia’s autonomy are all converging, that choice will shape far more than the optics of a single meeting in Beijing.”

While the ceasefire between the United States and Iran remains in effect, the U.S. military claims it “fired on two Iran-flagged oil tankers” on Friday as a measure to enforce the U.S. naval blockage, CBS News reported. Iran also continues to impose its partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade flows.

Trump has issued increasingly ominous threats in an effort to pressure Iran into accepting a U.S.-backed deal to end the war, recently warning that if Iran refused, there would be “one big glow coming out of Iran,” sparking fresh panic over the potential use of nuclear weapons. However, negotiations appear to have reached a stalemate.

“Every day of disruption increases Tehran’s leverage not only with Washington but indirectly with Beijing, which depends heavily on Iranian crude and has publicly urged Iran to restore navigation,” Antoun wrote.

“Success, therefore, does not require a grand bargain — only a thin, reciprocal arrangement that gets both sides to May 15 without explosion. A narrow freeze framework, a face‑saving maritime de‑escalation, and a temporary alignment of incentives may be enough to prevent the Gulf crisis from dominating the Beijing summit on Xi’s terms.”