Tehran’s growing reliance on Beijing is a consequence of the battering its missile program has had from Israeli strikes and highlights the alignment of Iran and China with Russia and North Korea.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he hoped to avoid military strikes on Iran's nuclear program, an option long mulled by Israel.

His administration has signaled in recent days that it wants to try and reach a diplomatic agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program, rather than carrying out a military strike. There had been some in Israel who assumed that Trump’s return to the White House would lead to the US backing an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites or even carrying out such an attack itself.