What we know so far: Trump says Chinese President Jinping denies sending weapons to Iran.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had denied sending weapons to Iran. In the Fox News interview, he also said that Xi Jinping denied the claim in a letter to Trump after the US president wrote to him about reports that China was giving Iran weapons for the war.

"I wrote him a letter telling him not to do that." Trump said, "And he wrote me a letter saying that, basically, he's not doing that." Trump is going to meet Xi in Beijing in early May.

In a post on social media, Trump said that China is "very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz." He went on to say, "They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran." He seemed to say that the two are connected.

On Tuesday, the president told an interviewer that Chinese President Xi Jinping had said he would not send weapons to Iran. In the past few days, China's Foreign Ministry has repeatedly said that the country is not giving Iran any kind of military help.

In the meantime, the mediators got closer to extending the ceasefire between the US and Iran and starting talks again to save the fragile truce before it runs out next week.

A high-ranking Iranian military official said that trade in the area would stop if the US doesn't lift its naval blockade. This shows how tense things are right now, which is getting in the way of diplomacy.

The US blockade of Iranian ports and new threats from Iran have put the week-old agreement in danger, but regional officials told The Associated Press that they were making progress and that the US and Iran had reached a "in principle agreement" to extend it so that more diplomacy could take place.

On Wednesday, the head of Iran's joint military command said that if the US military doesn't lift its blockade on Iranian ports, Iran will completely stop all trade across the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea.

Ali Abdollahi said, "Iran will act strongly to protect its national sovereignty and interests." He called the blockade "a prelude to violating the ceasefire." Iranian state media reported on what he said.

One of the regional officials involved in mediation efforts says that before the two-week ceasefire ends on April 22, mediators are trying to get the two sides to agree on three main issues that stopped direct talks last weekend: Iran's nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz, and compensation for damages caused during the war.

Both officials talked about the issue without giving their names. US President Donald Trump and UN Secretary-General António Guterres were among the world leaders who said on Tuesday that talks would probably start up again in the next few days.

In Iran, at least 3,000 people have died in the fighting. In Lebanon, more than 2,100 people have died, 23 in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. There have also been deaths among 13 US service members.