US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he decided to hold off on ordering American forces to carry out new strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Mr Trump said a plan was in place for US forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II” on Sunday, but he decided to scrap the plan and give diplomacy more time to play out after hearing from key Gulf leaders — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.
“I said to the crown prince, ‘What would you rather do? Would you rather us do this or not?’” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“They said we would much prefer a deal as opposed to an attack, because you don’t know where these attacks lead.”
Mr Trump and the crown prince spoke on Saturday before the US president announced in a social media post that Middle East allies had reached the “perimeters” of a deal to end the five-month war.
It was another turnabout for Mr Trump, who a day earlier said he was “losing faith” in negotiations with Iran and offered the ominous warning that the US military “will be hitting them very hard”.
Mr Trump on Sunday reiterated that the emerging deal would include a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway where about a fifth of the world’s energy flowed before the start of the war, and would resolve US concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorisation as part of its conflict with the US.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28”, the day the war started.
On a call with Iranian state TV, he added that Iran is discussing shipping through the strait with Oman, on the other side of Hormuz, but there is no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.
Mr Trump has announced halts to strikes on several occasions since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.
Iran’s defence minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Mr Trump’s announcement and said Iran remains alert in the face of concrete threats from the US.
While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signalling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the US and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.
Mr Trump on Sunday said he expected negotiations to resume “tomorrow afternoon” but did not detail who would be involved in such talks.
A regional official said the proposal announced by Mr Trump over the weekend calls for the US and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues which have stymied prior progress on the deal.
The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.
The US, in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.
No deal has been reached yet, but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Mr Trump said Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal reached in June. Israel did not publicly comment on the announcement.
