WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday 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.
The U.S. president added that a plan was in place for U.S. 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.”
Trump and the crown prince spoke on Saturday before the U.S. president announced in a social media post that Mideast allies had reached the "perimeters" of a deal to end the 5-month-old war.
It was another turnabout for Trump, who a day earlier said he’s “losing faith” in negotiations with Iran and offered the ominous warning that the U.S. military “will be hitting them very hard.”
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 U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorization as part of its conflict with the U.S.
And 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 28th,” 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 that there’s no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.
Trump has announced halts to strikes on Iran on several occasions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.
Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said Iran remains alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S.
While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the U.S. and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.
The latest proposal would bring sides back to negotiations
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 Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that 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 U.S., 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 wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.
Trump said that 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.
Saudis are concerned about Iran's retaliation
Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto leader, raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict when he spoke with Trump by phone on Saturday.
The call was “candid and constructive,” according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States' Gulf allies.
The call happened before Trump’s social media announcement, the person said. The crown prince sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he was weighing to take against Iran.
Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom — as well as fellow Persian Gulf energy titans the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are in a good position to defend against further potential Iranian attacks, but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Trump suggested that his conversation with the Saudi crown prince weighed heavily in his decision to halt his plans to carry out strikes on Iran.
“It would have been disastrous for them. And they didn’t want us to do it," Trump said. "And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. They thought that a deal is imminent.”
