Trump believes China helped get Iran to negotiate

US President Donald Trump said he believed China had helped bring Iran to the negotiating table to agree to a two-week ceasefire deal, he told AFP on Tuesday.

"I hear yes," Trump said in a telephone call when asked if Beijing was involved in getting key ally Tehran to negotiate on a truce.

Trump is due to travel to Beijing in May to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The United States and Iran agreed to the ceasefire, barely an hour before President Trump's deadline to strike Iran was set to expire, with Tehran temporarily reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz.

After more than a month of blistering attacks by the United States and Israel, Iran cast the ceasefire as a victory and said it had agreed to talks with Washington to begin Friday in Pakistan on a path to end the conflict.

Trump said he had spoken to Pakistan's leaders who "requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran."

"Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed safe passage for two weeks for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for one-fifth of the world's oil which Tehran sealed off in retaliation for the war launched on February 28.

"If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations," Araghchi said.