US President Donald Trump has said he has called off new military strikes on Iran, hours after threatening to escalate the war by seizing control of the country’s oil industry.
Mr Trump said in a social media post that he made the move “based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved”.
The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the US and Iran had threatened pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.
Just hours after Mr Trump posted on social media that the US would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and take “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, the president was suggesting that progress has been made in talks to extend the fragile ceasefire.
He wrote that “discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail”, approved by United States, Israel, and other regional allies. He did not offer details.
Mr Trump on multiple occasions over the last several weeks has claimed that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition.
His most recent threats were the latest example of him voicing frustration with the stalled negotiations to end the war. He warned earlier in the week that Tehran would “pay the price” for taking too long to reach a deal.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned in a social media post on Thursday that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years”.
While the most recent strikes have increased tensions in the region, they have been more limited compared with the early weeks of the war and negotiations between the US and Iran are ongoing.
Mr Trump’s threats on Thursday represented his latest verbal escalation in the Iran war. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it did not agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.
Iran’s monthslong stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.
Mr Trump had threatened Thursday to seize Kharg Island, the heart of Iran’s oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass. Located on the other side of the Persian Gulf from US bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the island is important because Iran’s coastline is mostly too shallow for tanker ships to dock.
It was unclear how serious Mr Trump was about his threat to seize it.
“My preference has always been to take Kharg Island,” he said in an interview on Thursday on Fox News. “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it to be honest.”
American troops would be vulnerable on Kharg Island because of its proximity – about 33 kilometres (21 miles) – to the Iranian mainland, from which missiles, drones and artillery could be fired.
Mr Trump indicated in the interview that he remains averse to sending US forces into Iran.
“I don’t want to have boots on the ground,” he said. “But if I wanted to we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.”
Mr Trump compared his threat to take over Iran’s oil industry to how the US assumed control of Venezuela’s oil sector after capturing then-president Nicolas Maduro in January.
Back-and-forth strikes rattled the Middle East for the third time this week. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the US and Iran, which targeted countries were US troops are based.
The US military’s Central Command said airstrikes ending early on Thursday targeted Iran’s military surveillance, communications and air defence sites.
Explosions echoed around Iran’s capital, as well as the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said sites hit included a manufacturing complex, a military barracks and a local Guard base outside Tehran.
Tehran said it fired back at Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
Kuwait closed its airspace for several hours but did not report any damage. Jordan said it intercepted 20 Iranian missiles fired toward a base hosting US troops, though no one was hurt.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an 11-year-old girl was hurt and cars and homes were damaged by debris from intercepted Iranian strikes.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire … meaningless”, without saying it was abandoning it.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the US would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies and any tolls Iran imposes for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful. The US and Israel fear Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium could be used to build an atomic weapon.
Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.