President Donald Trump says Iran's two biggest friends on the world stage have given Tehran far less help than they could have, and he calls that a good thing. Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said Russia could have done a lot more for Iran but has done very little. He said China could have done a lot more too, but does "not that much, maybe nothing almost," and he called the limited support a "very positive thing." Asked whether he had agreed to a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said no, but that he would do it. He said the talks would focus on nuclear weapons and denuclearization, and reports say he is open to meeting them in China in November.

The comments raise some obvious questions, starting with how much help is "very little." Trump has said before that both leaders told him they would not sell weapons to Iran. Other reports point the other way, with claims that China supplied missile launchers and helped Iran dodge oil sanctions, and a US official telling Bloomberg that Russia is providing missiles. Beijing denies that Chinese entities have aided Iran's military. Putin has also reportedly floated a three-way summit of his own, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, so it is not yet clear which agenda such a meeting would follow, or whether it will happen at all.