President Donald Trump said Monday that he is calling off an attack on Iran planned for Tuesday because regional leaders had urged him to allow negotiations to continue and a “very acceptable” deal for the U.S. was at hand.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asked him “to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond. This Deal will include, importantly, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN!”
He added, “Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”
Trump later told reporters at the White House that the delay of the attack may be temporary.
“I put it off for a little while, hopefully, maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” he said.
Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that Iran had “better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” reviving his threats to annihilate the country with efforts stalling to end to the war the U.S. and Israel began nearly three months ago.
Talks over a deal that would end the conflict, address Iran’s nuclear program and restore traffic through the Strait of Hormuz appear to have made little progress in recent weeks.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei appeared to respond to the threat Monday, saying Tehran was not “intimidated” but emphasizing that the “process of talks and negotiations” remained “ongoing.”
Tehran had now responded to a new U.S. proposal, Baghaei said. “Our concerns were conveyed to the American side,” he said at a news briefing.
Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, according to Israeli media. The White House did not confirm the call.
The United Arab Emirates also said a drone strike caused a fire at a nuclear power plant, while Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three drones from Iraqi airspace.
The UAE did not identify an assailant in what it called an “unprovoked terrorist attack” on the perimeter of its Barakah nuclear plant.
Authorities said Sunday that the fire did not affect the plant’s safety and that all units were operating as normal.
The emirate has frequently accused Iran of carrying out attacks, including during the shaky ceasefire, and the latest incident came as both Tehran and Washington signaled they were prepared for a return to fighting should no resolution be reached in the coming days.
The attack was swiftly condemned by mediator Pakistan and other countries.
Trump told Axios in a phone call that if the Iranian regime did not come forward with a better deal to suspend its nuclear program, the Islamic Republic was “going to get hit much harder.”
He declined to give a specific deadline for the negotiations but said he wanted a better proposal than an offer given several days ago, according to Axios.
In an interview with Fortune magazine conducted last week and published Monday, Trump said Iran was “dying to sign” a deal.
“But they make a deal, and then they send you a paper that has no relationship to the deal you made. I say, ‘Are you people crazy?’” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called for a ramping up of U.S. military action against Iran on Sunday.
The longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed as the U.S. tries to “pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,” he said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Iran’s effective closure of the crucial waterway and the U.S. naval blockade have throttled global supplies of energy and fertilizer.
Global markets tumbled and oil prices rose Monday, with the international benchmark Brent crude oil around $110 per barrel.
Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said at a meeting of leading industrialized nations in Paris that commercial oil inventories were depleting rapidly and had only a few weeks left.
And Trump, in the Fortune interview, suggested the turmoil had left him resigned to waiting for his desired interest rate cuts. “You can’t really look at the figures until the war is over,” he said.
Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, said Monday that Tehran had no enmity against any countries in the region, including the UAE.
He said Tehran would be “monitoring all movements” and was “prepared for any possibility” should Trump move forward with his threat to restart the war with the Islamic Republic. “If they make even the slightest mistake, we know very well how to respond,” he said.
He emphasized that Iran was not willing to compromise on its right to nuclear enrichment, which he said was enshrined in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the international treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
